Herbert Spencer Quotes

Whatever I do, it's my business. It's not my job to parent America.

Independence of mind or strength of character is rarely found among those who cannot be confident that they will make their way by their own effort.... Indeed, when security is understood in too absolute a sense, the general striving for it, far from increasing the chances of freedom, becomes the greatest threat to it.

Our individualism is rooted in our very nature. It is based on conviction born of experience. Equal opportunity, the demand for a fair chance, became the formula of American Individualism because it is the method of American achievement.

I believe in individual freedom and right to decide how and with whom I will live my life.

Everyone should be decisive about what's best for them and stick to it.

We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit.

A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.

The first principle of freedom is the right to go to hell in your own handbasket.

A man of independent judgment is a man of profound self-esteem.

No man is wise enough to be another man's master. Each man's as good as the next -- if not a damn sight better.

Englishmen never will be slaves; they are free to do whatever the government and public opinion allow them.

The first rule of survival is: Make your own rules. The hell anyone thinks about the way you're acting; listen only to yourself.

In true democracy every man and woman is taught to think for himself or herself.

Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.

I feel very strongly in my opinion that everyone is responsible to themselves for what they do.

I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.

There is not the woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband, or brother; for any one who does so eat her bread places herself in the power of the person from whom she takes it.

I do not want to see any of the people cringing supplicants for the favor of the Government, when they should all be independent masters of their own destiny.

Men love liberty because it protects them from control and humiliation by others, thus affording them the possibility of dignity; they loathe liberty because it throws them back on their own abilities and resources, thus confronting them with the possibility of insignificance.

The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.

Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter theunion, the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret soul, he will go up and down doing the works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will be done with concert, though no man spoke.

The dignity of the individual demands that he be not reduced to vassalage by the largesse of others.

In a dynamic, decentralized system of individual choice and responsibility, people do not have to trust any authority but their own.

I think the idea of individualism has become more dominating in our society. You can even see it by our political system: how people vote, the job situation, the sociological evolution that's happening, what's happening in the Middle East and so forth.

I really don't advise a woman who wants to have things her own way to get married