There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
Herbert SpencerRead
However insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Every individual's rights must be respected, regardless of their number or the perceived importance of their claims.
This quote highlights the importance of individual rights and the idea that justice should not be compromised, even for the sake of the majority. Herbert Spencer emphasizes that minoritarian rights must be championed, and any violations against them, no matter how small, are unjust and unacceptable in a moral society.
Themes
RightsJusticeMinorityTrespassSociety
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about civil rights to emphasize the importance of defending minority rights.
More from Herbert Spencer
All quotes βNo one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.
Herbert SpencerRead
That feelings of love and hate make rational judgments impossible in public affairs, as in private affairs, we can clearly enough see in others, though not so clearly in ourselves.
Herbert SpencerRead
Be it or be it not true that Man is shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, it is unquestionably true that Government is begotten of aggression, and by aggression.
Herbert SpencerRead
Organs, faculties, powers, capacities, or whatever else we call them; grow by use and diminish from disuse, it is inferred that they will continue to do so. And if this inference is unquestionable, then is the one above deduced from it-that humanity must in the end become completely adapted to its conditions-unquestionable also. Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.
Herbert SpencerRead
This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
Herbert SpencerRead
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