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The question is not whether humans will become extinct, but rather when they will. If the anti-natalist arguments are correct, it would be better, all things being equal, if this happened sooner rather than later for, the sooner it happens, the more suffering and misfortune will be avoided.

— David Benatar

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More quotes by David Benatar

Humans inflict untold suffering and death on many billions of animals every year, and the overwhelming majority of humans are heavily complicit.

Permissible Progeny? The Morality of Procreation and Parenting (2015)

Humanity is a moral disaster. There would have been much less destruction had we never evolved. The fewer humans there are in the future, the less destruction there will still be.

Permissible Progeny? The Morality of Procreation and Parenting (2015)

On my view there is no net benefit to coming into existence and thus coming into existence is never worth its costs.

Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (2006)

Those who consume animals not only harm those animals and endanger themselves, but they also threaten the well-being of other humans who currently or will later inhabit the planet.

It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.

Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (2006)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: David Benatar (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.