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No philosopher's stone of a constitution can produce golden conduct from leaden instincts.

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
Philosopher
Golden
Instinct
Stones
Constitution
Leaden
Produce
Instincts
Conduct
Stone

More quotes by Herbert Spencer

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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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Do not try to produce an ideal child, it would find no fitness in this world.
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The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control.
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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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Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.
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Government is essentially immoral.
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The saying that beauty is but skin deep, is but a skin-deep saying.
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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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Religion has been compelled by science to give up one after another of its dogmas. . . .
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Those whose hardships are set forth in pamphlets and proclaimed in sermons and speeches which echo throughout society, are assumed to be all worthy souls, grievously wronged and none of them are thought of as bearing the penalties of their misdeeds.
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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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Divine right of kings means the divine right of anyone who can get uppermost.
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The essential trait in the moral consciousness, is the control of some feeling or feelings by some other feeling or feelings.
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Let men learn that a legislature is not 'our God upon earth,' though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.
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There is no origin for the idea of an afterlife, save the conclusion which the savage draws from the notion suggested by dreams.
Herbert Spencer
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Mental power cannot be got from ill-fed brains.
Herbert Spencer
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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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We too often forget that not only is there 'a soul of goodness in things evil,' but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous.
Herbert Spencer
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Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions.
Herbert Spencer
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Practical atheism, seeing no guidance for human affairs but its own limited foresight, endeavors itself to play the god, and decide what will be good for mankind and what bad.
Herbert Spencer