Herbert Spencer

People are beginning to see that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal.

Society exists for the benefit of its members, not the members for the benefit of society.

The behavior of men to the lower animals, and their behavior to each other, bear a constant relationship.

Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.

An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of our nature.

Music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts - as the one which, more than any other, ministers to the human spirit.

Marriage: a ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman.

Marriage: A word which should be pronounced 'mirage'.

Science is organized knowledge.

When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.

The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.

Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing.

Government is essentially immoral.

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.

Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom.

We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one.

Education has for its object the formation of character.

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.