Quotes by Herbert Spencer

“We too often forget that not only is there 'a soul of goodness in things evil,' but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous.”

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

“As a corollary to the proposition that all institutions must be subordinated to the law of equal freedom, we cannot choose but admit the right of the citizen to adopt a condition of voluntary outla...”

“They who employ force by proxy are as much responsible for that force as though they employed it themselves.”

“Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion during which the matter passes from an indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity, and during...”

“If a single cell, under appropriate conditions, becomes a man in the space of a few years, there can surely be no difficulty in understanding how, under appropriate conditions, a cell may, in the c...”

“No man is equal to his book. All the best products of his mental activity go into his book, where they come separated from the mass of inferior products with which they are mingled in his daily talk.”

“The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing.”

“Science is organized knowledge.”

“In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.”

“Music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts - as the one which, more than any other, ministers to the human spirit.”

“When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.”

“The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.”

“Marriage: a ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman.”

“Marriage: A word which should be pronounced 'mirage'.”

“Government is essentially immoral.”

“All socialism involves slavery.”

“Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.”

“People are beginning to see that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal.”

“Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.”