Liberty Quotes by Herbert Spencer

9 Liberty quotes by Herbert Spencer

All Liberty quotes Herbert Spencer’s page

Spencer’s brief lines weave together social theory and individual rights, reflecting his evolutionary view of society. These snippets give a quick taste of his libertarian‑leaning philosophy.

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Liberty is not the right of one, but of all.

Herbert Spencer

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The society exists for the benefit of its members; not its members for the benefit of the society.

Herbert Spencer

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However insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.

Herbert Spencer

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Every man may claim the fullest liberty to exercise his faculties compatible with the possession of like liberties by every other man.

Herbert Spencer

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A man's liberties are none the less aggressed upon because those who coerce him do so in the belief that he will…

Herbert Spencer

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If men use their liberty in such a way as to surrender their liberty, are they thereafter any the less slaves? If…

Herbert Spencer

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The liberty the citizen enjoys is to be measured not by governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by…

Herbert Spencer

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I emphasize the reply that the liberty which a citizen enjoys is to be measured, not by the nature of the governmental…

Herbert Spencer

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“As a corollary to the proposition that all institutions must be subordinated to the law of equal freedom, we cannot choose but…

Herbert Spencer

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More by Herbert Spencer

During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.

Herbert Spencer

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No physiologist who calmly considers the question in connection with the general truths of his science, can long resist the conviction that different parts…

Herbert Spencer

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Any piece of knowledge which the pupil has himself acquired- any problem which he has himself solved, becomes, by virtue of the conquest, much…

Herbert Spencer

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Conservatism defends those coercive arrangements which a still-lingering savageness makes requisite. Radicalism endeavours to realize a state more in harmony with the character of…

Herbert Spencer

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Absolute morality is the regulation of conduct in such a way that pain shall not be inflicted.

Herbert Spencer

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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.

Herbert Spencer

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The cruelty of a Fijian god, who, represented as devouring the souls of the dead, may be supposed to inflict torture during the process,…

Herbert Spencer

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The liberty the citizen enjoys is to be measured not by governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by the paucity…

Herbert Spencer

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I had a great dislike to the annoyances entailed by baggage; and it was always with some feeling of elation that I cut myself…

Herbert Spencer

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Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity…It is a part of nature.

Herbert Spencer

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Surely in much talk there cannot choose but be much vanity. Loquacity is the fistula of the mind,--ever-running and almost incurable, let every man,…

Herbert Spencer

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No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be…

Herbert Spencer

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Only when Genius is married to Science can the highest results be produced.

Herbert Spencer

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It cannot but happen?that those will survive whose functions happen to be most nearly in equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces? This…

Herbert Spencer

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“Before he can remake his society, his society must make him.”

Herbert Spencer

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