Thomas Malthus

"Death is the ultimate teacher of human humility and proportion."

"Perseverance through hardship builds character and strength of spirit."

"Gratitude acknowledges that we do not deserve the good we receive."

"Creativity flourishes when constrained by wisdom and moral principle."

"Justice requires we consider not our wishes but what is right."

"Patience is the soil in which all true progress grows."

"Kindness divorced from justice becomes mere sentimentality."

"Strength of character is demonstrated in how one treats those beneath oneself."

"Fear of consequences is often the only thing that restrains human vice."

"Power without virtue is the most dangerous force in human affairs."

"Money accumulated at the expense of virtue is a curse, not a blessing."

"Health is the foundation of all happiness and must be preserved carefully."

"The great object of life is sensation – to feel that we exist."

"All the argumentative power and all the practical ingenuity of the ablest men cannot make those proportions equal to the wants of an increasing population."

"The passion between the sexes has appeared in every age to be so nearly the same that it may always be considered, in algebraic language, as a given quantity."

"Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio; subsistence in an arithmetical ratio."

"We cannot expect that the vices and miseries which have been produced by the causes we are examining should be suddenly removed by the destruction of their causes."

"The poorest labour is still a commodity; and labour is still bought and sold in the market like other things."

"Man cannot live in the midst of plenty. His nature seems to demand some obstacle to overcome before he can feel that life is worth living."

"The efforts of the poor to better their condition, instead of being encouraged, are condemned."

"The principle of population is so powerful that it prevents constant improvement without constant effort."

"In the great lottery of life, few prizes bear any proportion to the blanks."

"Intellectual exertion will always be found to be the most ennobling and the most pleasant of pursuits."

"The difficulty of procuring subsistence has necessarily confined man to fewer occupations."

"Prudential restraint in the union of the sexes is the only effectual and permanent remedy for poverty."

"War, famine, and pestilence are the natural checks to an excessive population."

"The cause of the poverty of the poor cannot be found in the individual causes which determine the distribution of wealth."

"Civilization does not diminish the natural desire of each man to acquire property."

"In the state of nature a savage would be absolutely unable to procure for himself the necessaries of life."

"Every inquiry concerning the means of improving the condition of the poor leads almost necessarily to a critique of the foundations of society."