Quote#Politics & Power
There can be little question that good composition is far less…
Quote byHerbert Spencer · 1820–1903
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Philosophy of Style (1852), Pt. I, sec. 1, "The Principle of Economy".
English (original)
There can be little question that good composition is far less dependent upon acquaintance with its laws, than upon practice and natural aptitude. A clear head, a quick imagination, and a sensitive ear, will go far towards making all rhetorical precepts needless.
— Herbert Spencer
More from Herbert Spencer
All evil results from the non-adaptation of constitution to conditions. This is true of everything that lives. Does a shrub dwindle in poor soil, or become sickly when deprived of light, or die outright if removed to a cold climate? it is …
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 current opinion that science and poetry are opposed is a delusion.
The truth is, that those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.
Evil perpetually tends to disappear.
Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.