Quote

If men use their liberty in such a way as to surrender their liberty, are they thereafter any the less slaves? If people by a plebiscite elect a man despot over them, do they remain free because the despotism was of their own making?

Herbert Spencer

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Herbert Spencer
Born: 1824
Born: April 27
Anthropologist
Botanist
Economist
Journalist
Philosopher
Psychologist
Sociologist
Writer
Derby
Derbyshire
Spencert
Gerbert Spencer
Government
Slave
Plebiscite
Way
Remain
Despot
Men
Liberty
Thereafter
People
Freedom
Despots
Free
Elect
Less
Despotism
Making
Slaves
Use
Surrender

More quotes by Herbert Spencer

Image
When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don't care if they are shot themselves.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The presumption that any current opinion is not wholly false, gains in strength according to the number of its adherents.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The poverty of the incapable, the distresses that come upon the imprudent, the starvation of the idle, and those shoulderings aside of the weak by the strong, which leave so many in shallows and in miseries, are the decrees of a large, far-seeing benevolence.
Herbert Spencer
Image
A function to each organ, and each organ to its own function, is the law of all organization.
Herbert Spencer
Image
In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.
Herbert Spencer
Image
How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.
Herbert Spencer
Image
We must infer that a plant or animal of any species, is made up of special units, in all of which there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to aggregate into the form of that species: just as in the atoms of a salt, there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to crystallize in a particular way.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Without painting, sculpture, music, poetry, and the emotions produced by natural beauty of every kind, life would lose half its charm.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions.
Herbert Spencer
Image
When you take comprehensive, then we're dealing with certain issues like full citizenship ... And whatever else we disagree on, I think we would agree on that that's a more toxic and contentious issue, granting full amnesty.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Progress is not an accident, not a thing within human control, but a beneficent necessity ... due to the working of a universal law. So surely must the things we call evil and immorality disappear so surely must man become perfect.
Herbert Spencer
Image
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.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The universal basis of co-operation is the proportioning of benefits received to services rendered.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Do not try to produce an ideal child, it would find no fitness in this world.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Let men learn that a legislature is not 'our God upon earth,' though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The society exists for the benefit of its members not its members for the benefit of the society.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Strong as it looks at the outset, State-agency perpetually disappoints every one. Puny as are its first stages, private efforts daily achieve results that astound the world.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Marriage: A word which should be pronounced mirage.
Herbert Spencer
Image
A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance.
Herbert Spencer