Thomas Malthus Quotes
A writer may tell me that he thinks man will ultimately become an ostrich. I cannot properly contradict him.
I think it will be found that experience, the true source and foundation of all knowledge, invariably confirms its truth.
The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.
A great emigration necessarily implies unhappiness of some kind or other in the country that is deserted.
Had population and food increased in the same ratio, it is probable that man might never have emerged from the savage state.
The rich, by unfair combinations, contribute frequently to prolong a season of distress among the poor.
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
The perpetual tendency of the race of man to increase beyond the means of subsistence is one of the general laws of animated nature, which we can have no reason to expect to change.
Each pursues his own theory, little solicitous to correct or improve it by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents.
To minds of a certain cast there is nothing so captivating as simplification and generalization.
The most baleful mischiefs may be expected from the unmanly conduct of not daring to face truth because it is unpleasing.
It is a mere futile process to exchange one set of commodities for another, if the parties; after this new distribution of goods has taken place, are not better off than they were before.
The main peculiarity which distinguishes man from other animals is the means of his support - the power which he possesses of very greatly increasing these means.
It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment.
The constant effort towards population, which is found even in the most vicious societies, increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased.
Population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every 25 years or increases in a geometrical ratio.
The friend of the present order of things condemns all political speculations in the gross.
No limits whatever are placed to the productions of the earth; they may increase forever.
Where are we to look for the consumption required but among the unproductive labourers of Adam Smith?.
Hard as it may appear in individual instances , dependent poverty ought to be held disgraceful.
In 1860, sixty-three per cent of the couples married in Great Britain had families of four or more children; in 1925 only twenty per cent had more than four.
It has been said, and perhaps with truth, that the conclusions of Political Economy partake more of the certainty of the stricter sciences than those of most of the other branches of human knowledge.
If a country can only be rich by running a successful race for low wages, I should be disposed to say at once, perish such riches!
It has appeared that from the inevitable laws of our nature, some human beings must suffer from want. These are the unhappy persons who, in the great lottery of life, have drawn a blank.
I do not know that any writer has supposed that on this earth man will ultimately be able to live without food.
The great and unlooked for discoveries that have taken place of late years have all concurred to lead many men into the opinion that we were touching on a period big with the most important changes.
It is not the most pleasant employment to spend eight hours a day in a counting house.
In general it may be said that demand is quite as necessary to the increase of capital as the increase of capital is to demand.
I feel no doubt whatever that the parish laws of England have contributed to raise the price of provisions and to lower the real price of labour.
The moon is not kept in her orbit round the earth, nor the earth in her orbit round the sun, by a force that varies merely in the inverse ratio of the squares of the distances.
It is also very important to observe, that menial servants are absolutely necessary to make the resources of the higher and middle classes of society efficient in the demand for material products.
It accords with the most liberal spirit of philosophy to suppose that not a stone can fall, or a plant rise, without the immediate agency of divine power.
The first business of philosophy is to account for things as they are; and till our theories will do this, they ought not to be the ground of any practical conclusion.
The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food, and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years.
The doctrine of population has been conspicuously absent, not because I doubt in the least its truth and vast importance, but because it forms no part of the direct problem of economics.
Whether the law of marriage be instituted or not, the dictate of nature and virtue seems to be an early attachment to one woman.
The most effectual encouragement to population is, the activity of industry, and the consequent multiplication of the national products.
