Herbert Spencer
British philosopher who applied evolutionary theory to society, coining 'survival of the fittest' to describe social progress.
Most quoted
"Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation."
— from First Principles, 1862
"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... are the decrees of a large, far-seeing benevolence."
— from Social Statics, 1851
"The fact disclosed by a survey of the past that majorities have usually been wrong, must not blind us to the complementary fact that majorities have usually not been entirely wrong."
— from The Man Versus The State, 1884
All quotes by Herbert Spencer (101)
The sympathetic feelings are not of spontaneous growth; they are cultivated.
Evil perpetually tends to disappear.
The times of the greatest danger are those when there is the greatest progress.
A genius can learn certain things faster than a dull man, but no genius could learn them as fast as a child could learn them if the child had proper opportunity.
The repletion of the successful practitioner tends to deaden his intellectual and imaginative faculties.
Morality knows nothing of geographical boundaries, or distinctions of race.
The tyranny of Mrs. Grundy is worse than any other tyranny we suffer under.
How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.
The pressure of population is constantly tending to force society into a more industrial type.
Absolute morality is the regulation of conduct in such a way that pain shall not be inflicted.
The welfare of the few is to be secured only by the welfare of the many.
In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.
The behavior of men to women, and conversely, is not a matter of induction from the individual case, but a matter of evolution from the past.
Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom.
The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.
Music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts - as the one which, more than any other, ministers to human welfare.
The poet, by aiding in the development of a desirable mental state, performs a duty to the state.
Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they destroy themselves.
The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way.
Society exists for the benefit of its members.
Contemporaries of Herbert Spencer
Other Sociologys born within 50 years of Herbert Spencer (1820–1903).