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Thomas Malthus

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Famous Thomas Malthus Quotes

“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.”

MenMeanReasonLawRaceIncreaseTendenciesNo ReasonPerpetualAnimatedSubsistence
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Imporvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers
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“The natural inequality of the two powers of population and of production in the earth, and that great law of our nature which must constantly keep their efforts equal, form the great difficulty that to me appears insurmountable in the way to the perfectibility of society.”

WayTwoEarthFormLawNaturalEffortEqualDifficultyPopulationProductionsInequalityInsurmountable
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated
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“If it be taught that all who are born have a right to support on the land, whatever be their number, and that there is no occasion to exercise any prudence in the affair of marriage so as to check this number, the temptations, according to all the known principles of human nature, will inevitably be yielded to, and more and more will gradually become dependent on parish assistance.”

IfsHumansBornNumbersKnownPrinciplesSupportLandHuman NatureTaughtExerciseAffairChecksTemptationOccasionsDependentAssistancePrudenceParish
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Or, A View of Its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry Into Our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal Or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions
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“Where there are few people, and a great quantity of fertile land, the power of the earth to afford a yearly increase of food may be compared to a great reservoir of water, supplied by a moderate stream. The faster population increases, the more help will be got to draw off the water, and consequently an increasing quantity will be taken every year. But the sooner, undoubtedly, will the reservoir be exhausted, and the streams only remain.”

PeopleYearsMayHelpingEarthWaterTakenLandDrawsIncreasePopulationFasterStreamsQuantityExhaustedModeratesEugenicsFertileEuthanasiaReservoirs
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings
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“The redundant population, necessarily occasioned by the prevalence of early marriages, must be repressed by occasional famines, and by the custom of exposing children, which, in times of distress, is probably more frequent than is ever acknowledged to Europeans.”

ChildrenPopulationCustomsDistressOccasionalFamineEugenicsExposingRepressedEuthanasiaRedundant
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings
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“No state has hitherto existed (at least that we have any account of) ... that no check whatever has existed to early marriages, among the lower classes, from a fear of not providing well for their families, or among the higher classes, from a fear of lowering their condition in life.”

WellsStatesClassConditionsHigherAccountsChecksProvidingEugenicsEuthanasiaLower Class
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings
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“The exertions that men find it necessary to make, in order to support themselves or families, frequently awaken faculties that might otherwise have lain for ever dormant, and it has been commonly remarked that new and extraordinary situations generally create minds adequate to grapple with the difficulties in which they are involved.”

MenMindHas BeensMightOrderSituationSupportInvolvedDifficultyExtraordinaryFacultyAdequateExertionDormant
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings
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“It does not, however, seem impossible that by an attention to breed, a certain degree of improvement, similar to that among animals, might take place among men. Whether intellect could be communicated may be a matter of doubt: but size, strength, beauty, complexion, and perhaps even longevity are in a degree transmissible... As the human race could not be improved in this way, without condemning all the bad specimens to celibacy, it is not probable, that an attention to breed should ever become general.”

MenWayShouldHumansMayDoeMatterSeemsMightCertainAnimalRaceAttentionDoubtImpossibleDegreesSizeIntellectImprovementHuman RaceLongevityEugenicsCelibacyCondemningComplexion
Author:Thomas Malthus
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