52 quotes
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio, Subsistence, increases only in an arithmetical ratio.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
The greatest talents have been frequently misapplied and have produced evil proportionate to the extent of their powers.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
Had population and food increased in the same ratio, it is probable that man might never have emerged from the savage state.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
In general it may be said that demand is quite as necessary to the increase of capital as the increase of capital is to demand.
Principles of Political Economy (1836)
Evil exists in the world not to create despair but activity.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other vist the human race.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
It has appeared that from the inevitable laws of our nature, some human beings must suffer from want. These are the unhappy persons who, in the great lottery of life, have drawn a blank.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
To minds of a certain cast there is nothing so captivating as simplification and generalization.
Principles of Political Economy (1836)
Persons almost entirely unacquainted with the powers of a machine, cannot be expected to guess at its effects.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
A feather will weigh down a scale when there is nothing in the opposite one.
Principles of Political Economy (1836)
But, fortunately for mankind, the neat rents of the land, under a system of private property, can never be diminished by the progress of cultivation.
Principles of Political Economy (1836)
To prevent the recurrence of misery is, alas! beyond the power of man.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
It is not the most pleasant employment to spend eight hours a day in a counting house.
Principles of Political Economy (1836)
I happen to have a very bad fit of the tooth-ache at the time I am writing this.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
Every exchange which takes place in a country, effects a distribution of its produce better adapted to the wants of society....
Principles of Political Economy (1836)
It has been said, and perhaps with truth, that the conclusions of Political Economy partake more of the certainty of the stricter sciences than those of most of the other branches of human knowledge.
Principles of Political Economy (1836)
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.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
It accords with the most liberal spirit of philosophy to suppose that not a stone can fall, or a plant rise, without the immediate agency of divine power.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)
It cannot be true, therefore, that among animals some of the offspring will possess the desirable qualities of the parents in greater degree, or that animals are indefinitely perfectible.
An Essay on The Principle of Population (1798)