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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our abilities and faculties grow when used and decline when neglected, indicating that humanity must adapt to its conditions as a matter of necessity.
Herbert Spencer's quote highlights that human faculties, whether physical or mental, develop through practice and exercise, while neglecting them leads to their decline. This principle extends to humanity as a whole, suggesting that continuous adaptation to our circumstances is not a mere chance occurrence but an essential process for progress and survival. The quote implies that growth and advancement are fundamental to human existence, driven by the need to adjust to ever-changing conditions.
Themes
AdaptationProgressGrowthUseHumanityCapacity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage personal development.
More from Herbert Spencer
All quotes →No 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
This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
Herbert SpencerRead
I emphasize the reply that the liberty which a citizen enjoys is to be measured, not by the nature of the governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by the relative paucity of the restraints it imposes on him.
Herbert SpencerRead
Similar quotes
An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.
Edward AbbeyRead
I must have been one of the least surprised people on earth on September 11. I felt very braced for that. I knew something like that was going to come.
Christopher HitchensRead
They devour each other and cannot even digest themselves.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
She had acquired some of his gypsy ways, some of his nonchalance, his bohemian indiscipline. She had swung with him into the disorders of strewn clothes, spilled cigarette ashes, slipping into bed all dressed, falling asleep thus, indolence, timelessness...A region of chaos and moonlight. She liked it there.
Anais NinRead
For every crime that comes before him, a judge is required to complete a perfect syllogism in which the major premise must be the general law; the minor, the action that conforms or does not conform to the law; and the conclusion, acquittal or punishment. If the judge were constrained, or if he desired to frame even a single additional syllogism, the door would thereby be opened to uncertainty.
Cesare BeccariaRead
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
John F. KennedyRead