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Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus Books

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“The labouring poor, to use a vulgar expression, seem always to live from hand to mouth. Their present wants employ their whole whole attention, and they seldom think of the future. Even when they have an opportunity of saving they seldom exercise it, but all that is beyond their present neccessities goes, generally speaking, to the ale house.”

ThinkingWantWholeUseHandsSeemsOpportunityHousePoorAttentionExpressionExerciseMouthsSavingVulgarAle
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated
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“The greatest talents have been frequently misapplied and have produced evil proportionate to the extent of their powers. Both reason and revelation seem to assure us that such minds will be condemned to eternal death, but while on earth, these vicious instruments performed their part in the great mass of impressions, by the disgust and abhorrence which they excited.”

MindHas BeensReasonSeemsEarthEvilTalentEternalMassInstrumentsExcitedImpressionRevelationsDisgustingViciousAbhorrence
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated
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“To estimate the value of Newton's discoveries, or the delight communicated by Shakespeare and Milton, by the price at which their works have sold, would be but a poor measure of the degree in which they have elevated and enchanted their country; nor would it be less grovelling and incongruous to estimate the benefit which the country has derived from the Revolution of 1688, by the pay of the soldiers, and all other payments concerned in effecting it.”

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Book:Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application
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“The proposition of Mr. Ricardo, which states that a rise in the price of labour lowers the price of a large class of commodities, has undoubtedly a very paradoxical air; but it is, nevertheless, true, and the appearance of paradox would vanish, if it were stated more naturally and correctly.”

IfsStatesClassAirAppearanceLabourParadoxNeverthelessCommodityPropositionsParadoxical
Book:Principles of Political Economy: Considered with a View to Their Practical Application
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“Thirty or forty proprietors, with incomes answering to between one thousand and five thousand a year, would create a much more effectual demand for the necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries of life, than a single proprietor possessing a hundred thousand a year.”

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Book:Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application
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“To remedy the frequent distresses of the common people, the poor laws of England have been instituted; but it is to be feared that though they may have alleviated a little the intensity of individual misfortune, they have spread the general evil over a much larger surface.”

PeopleMayLittlesHas BeensLawEvilIndividualPoorCommonEnglandSpreadSurfaceMisfortunesIntensityRemedyDistress
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated
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“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.”

FirstsPhilosophyTheoryOughtAccountsPracticalsConclusion
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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“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!”

IfsShouldCountryRunningRaceSuccessfulRichLowsRichesWages
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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“THERE is scarcely any inquiry more curious, or, from its importance, more worthy of attention, than that which traces the causes which practically check the progress of wealth in different countries, and stop it, or make it proceed very slowly, while the power of production remains comparatively undiminished, or at least would furnish the means of a great and abundant increase of produce and population.”

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Author:Thomas Malthus
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“On the whole it may be observed, that the specific use of a body of unproductive consumers, is to give encouragement to wealth by maintaining such a balance between produce and consumption as will give the greatest exchangeable value to the results of the national industry.”

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Book:The Works of Thomas Robert Malthus: Principles of political economy. Part 2
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“If one fourth of the capital of a country were suddenly destroyed, or entirely transferred to a different part of the world, without any other cause occurring of a diminished demand for commodities, this scantiness of capital would certainly occasion great inconvenience to consumers, and great distress among the working classes; but it would be attended with great advantages to the remaining capitalists.”

IfsWorldDifferentCountryWould BeCausesClassDemandAdvantageDestroyedOccasionsConsumersCapitalistFourthDistressCommodityWorking ClassInconvenience
Author:Thomas Malthus
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“When Hume and Adam Smith prophesied that a little increase of national debt beyond the then amount of it, would probably occasion bankruptcy; the main cause of their error was the natural one, of not being able to see the vast increase of productive power to which the nation would subsequently obtain.”

LittlesAbleNationsCausesNaturalAmountIncreaseErrorsDebtOccasionsProductiveAdamBankruptcyNational DebtHume
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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“The employment of the poor in roads and public works, and a tendency among landlords and persons of property to build, to improve and beautify their grounds, and to employ workmen and menial servants, are the means most within our power and most directly calculated to remedy the evils arising from that disturbance in the balance of produce and consumption.”

MeanPersonsEvilPoorProduceBalancePropertyTendenciesEmploymentServantRemedyConsumptionDisturbanceWorkmenLandlord
Author:Thomas Malthus
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“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 juster philosophy might teach me rather to think that my eyes deceived me, and that the offer was not really what I conceived it to be.”

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Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated
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