Quote

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

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
Must
Atoms
Crystallize
Made
Salt
Infer
Way
Plant
Aggregate
Species
Aptitude
Particular
Dwells
Special
Intrinsic
Animal
Dna
Form
Units

More quotes by Herbert Spencer

Image
Ethical ideas and sentiments have to be considered as parts of the phenomena of life at large. We have to deal with man as a product of evolution, with society as a product of evolution, and with moral phenomena as products of evolution.
Herbert Spencer
Image
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
Image
The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control.
Herbert Spencer
Image
When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.
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
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
Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory it supported by no facts at all.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Policeman are soldiers who act alone soldiers are policeman who act in unison.
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
It must be admitted that the conception of virtue cannot be separated from the conception of happiness-producing conduct.
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
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
Absolute morality is the regulation of conduct in such a way that pain shall not be inflicted.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Thus poetry, regarded as a vehicle of thought, is especially impressive partly because it obeys all the laws of effective speech, and partly because in so doing it imitates the natural utterances of excitement.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The question of questions for the politicians should ever be-What type of social structure am I tending to produce? But this is a question he never entertains.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Only when Genius is married to Science can the highest results be produced.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The saying that beauty is but skin deep, is but a skin-deep saying.
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
Government is essentially immoral.
Herbert Spencer