Herbert Spencer Ideas Quotations

In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.

The more specific idea of Evolution now reached is - a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.

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.

How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.

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.

The idea of disembodied spirits is wholly unsupported by evidence, and I cannot accept it.

There is no origin for the idea of an afterlife, save the conclusion which the savage draws from the notion suggested by dreams.