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Pervading all nature we may see at work a stern discipline , which is a little cruel that it may be very kind.

Herbert Spencer

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Herbert Spencer
Born: 1824
Born: April 27
Anthropologist
Botanist
Economist
Journalist
Philosopher
Psychologist
Sociologist
Writer
Derby
Derbyshire
Spencert
Gerbert Spencer
Littles
May
Little
Work
Pervading
Kind
Stern
Cruel
Discipline
Nature

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Of all the knowledge, that most worth having is knowledge about health! The first requisite of a good life is to be a healthy person.
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The presumption that any current opinion is not wholly false, gains in strength according to the number of its adherents.
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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.
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The fact disclosed by a survey of the past that majorities have been wrong must not blind us to the complementary fact that majorities have usually not been entirely wrong.
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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.
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No place, no company, no age, no person is temptation-free let no man boast that he was never tempted, let him not be high-minded, but fear, for he may be surprised in that very instant wherein he boasteth that he was never tempted at all.
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It must be admitted that the conception of virtue cannot be separated from the conception of happiness-producing conduct.
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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.
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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.
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Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.
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Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.
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In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.
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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.
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The society exists for the benefit of its members not its members for the benefit of the society.
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Our lives are universally shortened by our ignorance.
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Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry, may truly be called the efflorescence of civilised life.
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Without painting, sculpture, music, poetry, and the emotions produced by natural beauty of every kind, life would lose half its charm.
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If on one day we find the fast-spreading recognition of popular rights accompanied by a silent, growing perception of the rights of women, we also find it accompanied by a tendency towards a system of non-coercive education--that is, towards a practical illustration of the rights of children.
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Time: That which man is always trying to kill, but which ends in killing him.
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Lusts are like agues the fit is not always on, and yet the man is not rid of his disease and some men's lusts, like some agues, have not such quick returns as others.
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