Quote

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

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
Progress
Vigorous
State
Slavery
Less
Kinds
States
Institutions
Government
Merely
Serfdom
Kind
Rule
Springing
Men
Necessary
Feudalism
Cases
Tyrannical

More quotes by 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 saying that beauty is but skin deep, is but a skin-deep saying.
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
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
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
Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The idea of disembodied spirits is wholly unsupported by evidence, and I cannot accept it.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Never educate a child to be a gentleman or lady alone, but to be a man, a woman.
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
The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control.
Herbert Spencer
Image
People are beginning to see that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal.
Herbert Spencer
Image
I emphasize the reply that the liberty which a citizen enjoys is to be measured, not by the nature of the governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by the relative paucity of the restraints it imposes on him.
Herbert Spencer
Image
A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it.
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
Time: That which man is always trying to kill, but which ends in killing him.
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
Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.
Herbert Spencer
Image
A nation's institutions and beliefs are determined by it's character.
Herbert Spencer
Image
The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.
Herbert Spencer
Image
Mother, when your children are irritable, do not make them more so by scolding and fault-finding, but correct their irritability by good nature and mirthfulness. Irritability comes from errors in food, bad air, too little sleep, a necessity for change of scene and surroundings from confinement in close rooms, and lack of sunshine.
Herbert Spencer