Thomas Malthus

"Solitude provides opportunity for reflection."

"Contemplation deepens understanding."

"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 visit the human race."

"A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he cannot get subsistence from his parents on whom he has a just demand, and if the society do not want his labour, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food."

"The poor laws of England tend to depress the general condition of the poor."

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

"The constant effort towards population tends to subject the labouring classes to distress and to prevent any great permanent melioration of their condition."

"Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature against the vices of mankind."

"The improvement of the lower classes is the most likely source of human happiness."

"Marriage is the foundation of society and the source of all domestic happiness."

"Virtue is the only true basis for individual and social improvement."

"The checks to population are all resolvable into misery or vice."

"Hope is the greatest blessing to man; despair is the worst curse."

"The capacity of improvement in mankind is quite as much above any practical calculation as the capacity of population."

"Justice requires that we consider the real effects of our actions upon the poor."

"Education alone cannot remedy the defects arising from the pressure of population."

"A man might as well be dead as to be born into a world which cannot receive him."

"The love of power is a dominant passion of the human breast."

"Individual effort and moral restraint are the only true solutions to human suffering."

"The prospect of want is a powerful incitement to industry and virtue."

"Freedom without responsibility leads to the ruin of society."

"Truth is often painful, but it is always necessary for improvement."

"The happiness of nations depends upon the virtue of their inhabitants."

"Pleasure should never be pursued at the expense of duty."

"The human intellect is capable of understanding the principles that govern society."

"Time is the great revealer of truth and the corrector of error."

"War, pestilence, and famine are nature's response to unchecked population growth."

"The principle of population is the foundation of all human society."

"Prudence and restraint are the marks of a civilized people."

"The progress of knowledge depends upon the freedom to inquire and debate."