Quote#World
Ethical ideas and sentiments have to be considered as parts of the…
Quote byHerbert Spencer · 1820–1903
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Part III: The Ethics of Individual Life, Ch. 1, Introductory.
English (original)
Ethical ideas and sentiments have to be considered as parts of the phenomena of life at large. We have to deal with man as a product of evolution, with society as a product of evolution, and with moral phenomena as products of evolution.
— Herbert Spencer
More from Herbert Spencer
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.
Evil perpetually tends to disappear.
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.
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 …
Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.