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Quotes from The Principles of Ethics — Herbert Spencer

1820–1903 England

← All quotes by Herbert Spencer

11 quotes

Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

Every pleasure raises the tide of life; every pain lowers the tide of life.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

As there must be moderation in other things, so there must be moderation in self-criticism.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

The pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by social conditions, is the first requisite to the attainment of the greatest general happiness.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

The universal basis of co-operation is the proportioning of benefits received to services rendered.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

Originally, ethics has no existence apart from religion, which holds it in solution.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

The essential trait in the moral consciousness, is the control of some feeling or feelings by some other feeling or feelings.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

How often misused words generate misleading thoughts!

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

People ... become so preoccupied with the means by which an end is achieved, as eventually to mistake it for the end.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

If insistence on them tends to unsettle established systems ... self-evident truths are by most people silently passed over; or else there is a tacit refusal to draw from them the most obvious inferences.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

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.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Herbert Spencer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.