Quote#Death
It cannot but happen that those individuals whose functions are most…
Quote byHerbert Spencer · 1820–1903
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Principles of Biology (1864), The Principles of Biology, Vol. I (1864), Part III: The Evolution of Life, Ch. 7: Indirect Equilibration.
English (original)
It cannot but happen that those individuals whose functions are most out of equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces, will be those to die; and that those will survive whose functions happen to be most nearly in equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces. But this survival of the fittest, implies multiplication of the fittest.
— Herbert Spencer
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Evil perpetually tends to disappear.
Man needed one moral constitution to fit him for his original state; he needs another to fit him for his present state; and he has been, is, and will long continue to be, in process of adaptation.
The truth is, that those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.
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The current opinion that science and poetry are opposed is a delusion.
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