Thomas Malthus

“Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature.”

“The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.”

“Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.”

“The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation.”

“The constant effort towards population, which is found to act even in the most vicious societies, increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased.”

“Through the animal and vegetable kingdoms, nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand.”

“Evil exists in the world not to create despair but activity.”

“A man who is born into a world already possessed...has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food, and, in fact, has no business to be where he is.”

“Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits.”

“It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment.”