Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.
Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. He was "an enthusiastic exponent of evolution" and even "wrote about evolution before Darwin did." As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. "The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century." Spencer was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century" but his influence declined sharply after 1900; "Who now reads Spencer?" asked Talcott Parsons in 1937.
Spencer is best known for coining the expression "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also made use of Lamarckism.
“We too often forget that not only is there 'a soul of goodness in things evil,' but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous.”
“Science is organized knowledge.”
“إن الأديان على قدر إختلافها فى عقائدها المعلنة,تتفق ضمنيا فى إيمانها بأن وجود الكون هو سر يتطلب التفسير”
“Before he can remake his society, his society must make him.”
“Whatever fosters militarism makes for barbarism; whatever fosters peace makes for civilization.”
“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”
“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”
“The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.”
“No man is equal to his book. All the best products of his mental activity go into his book, where they come separated from the mass of inferior products with which they are mingled in his daily talk.”