Home / Authors / Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus Quotes

Scholar

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.

Filter quotes by topic

All Population Increase Men Economy May Humans Earth Poor Class Country Law Mean Subsistence Years Evil Has Beens Ifs Ratios World Causes

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

“No move towards the extinction of the passion between the sexes has taken place in the five or six thousand years that the world has existed.”

World Years Moving Passion Sex Taken Five Thousand Six Thousand Years Extinction

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated

“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.”

Years Five Thousand Demand Hundred Income Luxury Thirty Forty Convenience Possessing

Book:Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application

Source: Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application

“The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food, and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years.”

World Years Earth Courses Rooms Existence Millions Thousand Spots Thousand Years Germs

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population: Illustrated

“Population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every 25 years or increases in a geometrical ratio.”

Years Goes On Increase Environmental Population Ratios World Population Population Explosion

Author:Thomas Malthus

“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.”

Men Years Important Bigs Opinion Economy Taken Periods Late Discovery Touching

Book:The Works of Thomas Robert Malthus

Source: The Works of Thomas Robert Malthus

“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.”

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