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Garrett Hardin Quotes

1915–2003 United States

Garrett James Hardin (21 April 1915 – 14 September 2003) was a leading and controversial ecologist from Dallas, Texas who was most known for his 1968 paper, The Tragedy of the Commons. He is also known for Hardin's First Law of Ecology, which states "You cannot do only one thing".

United States
Activists
Environmentalists
Essayists

Random Garrett Hardin quote

8 quotes

Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.

Filters Against Folly (1985)

A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.

Tragedy of the Commons (1968)

It is a mistake to think that we can control the breeding of mankind in the long run by an appeal to conscience.

The Immigration Dilemma (1995)

The class of "No technical solution problems" has members. My thesis is that the "population problem," as conventionally conceived, is a member of this class.

Tragedy of the Commons (1968)

People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.

[I]f a pasture is run as a commons open to all, the right of each to use it is not matched by an operational responsibility to take care of it.

The Immigration Dilemma (1995)

Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit -- in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

Tragedy of the Commons (1968)

The overall system of a sizeable community struggling to survive in a crowded world may be either socialism or privatism. Either system may work, more or less. But, except in non-critical areas of distribution, commonism cannot possibly work for very long.

Filters Against Folly (1985)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Garrett Hardin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.