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No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as opening the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the shoulders would lose much by translation into words.

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
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Would
Lose
Eyebrows
Loses
Phrase
Eyes
Raising
Eye
Phrases
Shrug
Words
Shoulders
Vividly
Idea
Opening
Translation
Ideas
Surprise
Translations

More quotes by Herbert Spencer

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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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Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Absolute morality is the regulation of conduct in such a way that pain shall not be inflicted.
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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.
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The ideal form for a poem, essay, or fiction, is that which the ideal writer would evolve spontaneously. One in whom the powers of expression fully responded to the state of feeling, would unconsciously use that variety in the mode of presenting his thoughts, which Art demands.
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Religion has been compelled by science to give up one after another of its dogmas. . . .
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When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.
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A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance.
Herbert Spencer
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Every unpunished delinquency has a family of delinquencies.
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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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A function to each organ, and each organ to its own function, is the law of all organization.
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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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Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.
Herbert Spencer
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Government is essentially immoral. The State employs evil weapons to subjugate evil, and is alike contaminated by the objects with which it deals, and the means by which it works.
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Much dearer be the things which come through hard distress.
Herbert Spencer
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Divine right of kings means the divine right of anyone who can get uppermost.
Herbert Spencer