To minds of a certain cast there is nothing so captivating as simplification and generalization. Thomas Malthus More Quotes by Thomas Malthus More Quotes From Thomas Malthus The first business of philosophy is to account for things as they are; and till our theories will do this, they ought not to be the ground of any practical conclusion. Thomas Malthus theory philosophy firsts It does not, however, seem impossible that by an attention to breed, a certain degree of improvement, similar to that among animals, might take place among men. Whether intellect could be communicated may be a matter of doubt: but size, strength, beauty, complexion, and perhaps even longevity are in a degree transmissible... As the human race could not be improved in this way, without condemning all the bad specimens to celibacy, it is not probable, that an attention to breed should ever become general. Thomas Malthus eugenics animal men The exertions that men find it necessary to make, in order to support themselves or families, frequently awaken faculties that might otherwise have lain for ever dormant, and it has been commonly remarked that new and extraordinary situations generally create minds adequate to grapple with the difficulties in which they are involved. Thomas Malthus support men order A great emigration necessarily implies unhappiness of some kind or other in the country that is deserted. Thomas Malthus emigration kind country 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. Thomas Malthus unhappy-person suffering law The perpetual struggle for room and food. Thomas Malthus emigration cooking struggle The superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice. Thomas Malthus misery population vices No state has hitherto existed (at least that we have any account of) ... that no check whatever has existed to early marriages, among the lower classes, from a fear of not providing well for their families, or among the higher classes, from a fear of lowering their condition in life. Thomas Malthus euthanasia eugenics class Hard as it may appear in individual instances , dependent poverty ought to be held disgraceful. Thomas Malthus poverty individual may No limits whatever are placed to the productions of the earth; they may increase forever. Thomas Malthus earth forever may The great and unlooked for discoveries that have taken place of late years have all concurred to lead many men into the opinion that we were touching on a period big with the most important changes. Thomas Malthus taken discovery men The constant effort towards population, which is found even in the most vicious societies, increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased. Thomas Malthus numbers mean people In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known. Thomas Malthus equality virtue simple I do not know that any writer has supposed that on this earth man will ultimately be able to live without food. Thomas Malthus able earth men It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment. Thomas Malthus economy theory philosophy Man cannot live in the midst of plenty. Thomas Malthus midst plenty men With regard to the duration of human life, there does not appear to have existed from the earliest ages of the world to the present moment the smallest permanent symptom or indication of increasing prolongation. Thomas Malthus age doe world The love of independence is a sentiment that surely none would wish to see erased from the breast of man, though the parish law of England, it must be confessed, is a system of all others the most calculated gradually to weaken this sentiment, and in the end may eradicate it completely. Thomas Malthus independence law men The most effectual encouragement to population is, the activity of industry, and the consequent multiplication of the national products. Thomas Malthus multiplication population encouragement Population trends have always provoked doom-fraught oracles, because their popular interpreters suppose that every new series will be infinitely sustained; yet, beyond the short term, expectations based on them are never fulfilled. Thomas Malthus population trends expectations
