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Thomas Malthus Quotes

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Thomas Malthus, a British economist and demographer, was born on February 14, 1766, in Surrey, England, and died on December 23, 1834. Malthus is known for his theory of population, which posits that population growth will outstrip food supply, leading to poverty and suffering.

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Famous Thomas Malthus Quotes

“[P]opulation, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio. ... [T]he means of subsistence, under circumstances the most favorable to human industry, could not possibly be made to increase faster than in an arithmetical ratio.”

Years Humans Mean Made Science Five Food Goes On Industry Circumstances Increase Twenties Faster Five Years Twenty Five Ratios Subsistence

Author:Thomas Malthus

“The science of political economy is essentially practical, and applicable to the common business of human life. There are few branches of human knowledge where false views may do more harm, or just views more good.”

Humans May Political Views Common Economy Harm Practicals Human Life Branches Human Knowledge Political Economy

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

“With regard to the duration of human life, there does not appear to have existed from the earliest ages of the world to the present moment the smallest permanent symptom or indication of increasing prolongation.”

World Humans Doe Moments Age Regard Permanent Human Life Present Moment Smallest Symptoms Indication Duration

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated

“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.”

Humans Has Beens Said Political Economy Conclusion Certainty Branches Human Knowledge Political Economy

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

“The most successful supporters of tyranny are without doubt those general declaimers who attribute the distresses of the poor, and almost all evils to which society is subject, to human institutions and the iniquity of governments.”

Humans Government Evil Poor Successful Doubt Subjects Institutions Tyranny Attributes Distress Supporter Iniquity

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population

“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.”

Source: 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

“The prodigious waste of human life occasioned by this perpetual struggle for room and food, was more than supplied by the mighty power of population, acting, in some degree, unshackled, from the constant habit of emigration.”

Life Humans Science Rooms Acting Struggle Habit Degrees Waste Constant Population Human Life Perpetual Prodigious Emigration

Book:Population: The First Essay

Source: Population: The First Essay

“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.”

Want Humans Persons Law Suffering Human Beings Unhappy Inevitable Blank Lottery Happy Person Unhappy Person

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

“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.”

Men Humans Earth Race Produce Shapes Population Superiors Human Race Premature Subsistence Premature Death

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings