Thomas Malthus
Known for his theory that population growth tends to outstrip food supply, leading to poverty and misery.
Quotes by Thomas Malthus
In a virtuous and industrious society, the pressure of want is but little felt.
The superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice.
It is not in the power of the greatest statesman to mitigate the distress of the poor without adding to the number of the poor.
The rich have no right to the property of the poor, nor the poor to that of the rich.
Human happiness depends chiefly on the state of the mind.
The perpetual tendency of population to increase beyond the means of subsistence is the main cause of poverty.
Vice and misery are the necessary attendants of a redundant population.
The checks to population are of two kinds: positive and preventive.
Preventive checks to population consist of moral restraint and the various forms of vice.
Positive checks to population are peculiarly severe in new colonies.
The passion between the sexes is necessary for the propagation of the species.
In an ideal society, moral restraint would keep population in balance with subsistence.
The poor laws tend to increase the number of the poor.
Nothing is so common as to see a political writer attack a system which he does not understand.
The land was, therefore, the gift of nature to mankind.
The interest of the landlord is always opposed to the interest of the consumer.
In the progress of cultivation, the landlord's share increases.
The corn laws are a system of the most arbitrary and oppressive nature.
The happiness of a hundred thousand families depends on the conduct of a few men.
To prevent the recurrence of misery, the laborious and painful duty of keeping population within the means of subsistence must be discharged.