Thomas Malthus
Known for his theory that population growth tends to outstrip food supply, leading to poverty and misery.
Quotes by Thomas Malthus
The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of enjoyment.
Man is destined to suffer from the pressure of want.
The love of distinction is the mainspring of human actions.
In every society, the pressure of population on the means of subsistence is felt most severely by the lowest classes.
The geometric increase of population is a law of nature.
Subsistence is the great regulator of population.
The rich, by their monopolies, contribute to the misery of the poor.
Nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand.
The checks which keep the population down are all reducible to misery and vice.
Moral restraint is the only check that can be relied upon.
The earth affords a sufficient supply for the wants of all its inhabitants.
Population has a natural tendency to rise faster than the means of subsistence.
The poor are the victims of their own improvidence.
In the midst of abundance, want is felt.
The progress of society is limited by the power of the soil to produce food.
Capital is the result of saving, and saving is the result of abstinence.
The wages of labor depend on the demand for labor relative to the supply.
Profit is the reward of risk and abstinence.
The corn laws injure the consumer more than they benefit the producer.