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
Way
Remain
Despot
Men
Liberty
Thereafter
People
Freedom
Despots
Free
Elect
Less
Despotism
Making
Slaves
Use
Surrender
Government
Slave
Plebiscite

More quotes by Herbert Spencer

Image
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The freest form of government is only the least objectionable form. The rule of the many by the few we call tyranny: the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also only of a less intense kind.
Herbert Spencer
Image
It becomes possible to admit that plainness may coexist with nobility of nature, and fine features with baseness and yet to hold that mental and physical perfection are fundamentally connected, and will, when the present causes of incongruity have worked themselves out, be ever found united.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Conservatism defends those coercive arrangements which a still-lingering savageness makes requisite. Radicalism endeavours to realize a state more in harmony with the character of the ideal man.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold.
Herbert Spencer
Image
All evil results from the non-adaptation of constitution to conditions. This is true of everything that lives. Does a shrub dwindle in poor soil, or become sickly when deprived of light, or die outright if removed to a cold climate? it is because the harmony between its organization and its circumstances has been destroyed.
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
Feudalism, serfdom, slavery — all tyrannical institutions, are merely the most vigorous kinds of rule, springing out of, and necessary to, a bad state of man. The progress from these is in all cases the same — less government.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Divine right of kings means the divine right of anyone who can get uppermost.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Only when Genius is married to Science can the highest results be produced.
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
Without painting, sculpture, music, poetry, and the emotions produced by natural beauty of every kind, life would lose half its charm.
Herbert Spencer
Image
In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The forces which are working out the great scheme of perfect happiness, taking no account of incidental suffering, exterminate such sections of mankind as stand in their way, with the same sternness that they exterminate beasts of prey and herds of useless ruminants.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Marriage: A word which should be pronounced mirage.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry, may truly be called the efflorescence of civilised life.
Herbert Spencer
Image
We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past time, there has been a ceaseless devouring of the weak by the strong.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The primary use of knowledge is for such guidance of conduct under all circumstances as shall make living complete. All other uses of knowledge are secondary.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Aggression which is flagitious when committed by one, is not sanctioned when committed by a host.
Herbert Spencer