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
Let men learn that a legislature is not 'our God upon earth,' though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that the legislature is not infallible or divine, but rather a temporary institution that wields borrowed power.
Herbert Spencer cautions against viewing the legislature as an omnipotent authority, akin to a deity. He points out that the political institution is meant to serve specific, temporary purposes, and its power is often derived from external sources rather than being inherently righteous or permanent. This perspective encourages individuals to maintain a critical view of governmental authority and to recognize its limitations and transitory nature.
Themes
LegislatureAuthorityTemporaryPowerGovernment
In practice
Example use cases
During a political discussion, one might say this quote to emphasize the need for accountability in government.
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.
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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.
Herbert SpencerRead
This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
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The case against the notion of historical objectivity is like the case against international law, or international morality; that it does not exist.
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