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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Liberty is determined by how few restrictions a government places on its citizens, not by the government type.
Herbert Spencer's quote emphasizes that true liberty is not simply a byproduct of having a representative government; rather, it hinges on the extent of constraints imposed on individuals by that government. In essence, a system that grants minimal restrictions allows for greater personal freedom, irrespective of whether it is democratic or otherwise. The focus is on the practical experience of freedom rather than the institutional framework.
Themes
LibertyFreedomRestraintsGovernmentCitizen
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a political debate about the importance of limiting government powers.
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
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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To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.
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one does not only wish to be understood when one writes; one wishes just as surely not to be understood.
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Truth is most beautiful undraped.
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