Thomas Malthus Quotes (27 Quotes)

No limits whatever are placed to the productions of the earth; they may increase forever.

The passion between the sexes has appeared in every age to be so nearly the same, that it may always be considered, in algebraic language as a given quantity.

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.

If I saw a glass of wine repeatedly presented to a man, and he took no notice of it, I should be apt to think that he was blind or uncivil.

A writer may tell me that he thinks man will ultimately become an ostrich. I cannot properly contradict him.

The rich, by unfair combinations, contribute frequently to prolong a season of distress among the poor.

In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known.

The histories of mankind are histories only of the higher classes.

The superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice.

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.

The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.

The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.

I think it will be found that experience, the true source and foundation of all knowledge, invariably confirms its truth.

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.

Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.

Wherever there is liberty, the power of increase is exerted, and the superabundant effects are repressed afterwards by want of room and nourishment.

Reason interrupts man's career and asks him whether he may not bring beings into the world for whom he cannot provide the means of subsistence.

A great emigration necessarily implies unhappiness of some kind or other in the country that is deserted.

Hard as it may appear in individual cases, dependent poverty ought to be held disgraceful

I do not know that any writer has supposed that on this earth man will ultimately be able to live without food.

Each pursues his own theory, little solicitous to correct or improve it by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents.

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.

The histories of mankind that we possess are histories only of the higher classes.

Virtue to resist all temptation to evil.

Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.