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Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus Quotes

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Famous Thomas Malthus Quotes

“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.”

IfsThinkingMenShouldPhilosophyMightEyeTeachSawsOffersBlindWineGlassesDeceivedWine Glass
Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated
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“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 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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