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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love and hate can cloud our judgment in both public and private matters.
Herbert Spencer's quote highlights the powerful influence that strong emotions, such as love and hate, can have on our ability to make rational decisions. It suggests that while we may easily recognize these emotions in others, we often struggle to see how they affect our own judgments, leading to bias and irrationality in both personal and public affairs.
Themes
LoveHateJudgmentEmotionRationality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about community issues, you might quote this to highlight how emotions influence public opinion.
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.
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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.
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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.
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This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
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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.
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