Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography. Malthus himself used only his middle name Robert...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth14 February 1766
found foundation invariably source true
I think it will be found that experience, the true source and foundation of all knowledge, invariably confirms its truth.
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
afterwards effects increase power repressed room wherever
Wherever there is liberty, the power of increase is exerted, and the superabundant effects are repressed afterwards by want of room and nourishment.
asks beings bring cannot career means provide reason whether whom
Reason interrupts man's career and asks him whether he may not bring beings into the world for whom he cannot provide the means of subsistence.
higher histories mankind possess
The histories of mankind that we possess are histories only of the higher classes.
evil mind earth
The greatest talents have been frequently misapplied and have produced evil proportionate to the extent of their powers. Both reason and revelation seem to assure us that such minds will be condemned to eternal death, but while on earth, these vicious instruments performed their part in the great mass of impressions, by the disgust and abhorrence which they excited.
men able earth
I do not know that any writer has supposed that on this earth man will ultimately be able to live without food.
philosophy theory experiments
It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment.
eight house employment
It is not the most pleasant employment to spend eight hours a day in a counting house.
years luxury income
Thirty or forty proprietors, with incomes answering to between one thousand and five thousand a year, would create a much more effectual demand for the necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries of life, than a single proprietor possessing a hundred thousand a year.
may demand said
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.
air class appearance
The proposition of Mr. Ricardo, which states that a rise in the price of labour lowers the price of a large class of commodities, has undoubtedly a very paradoxical air; but it is, nevertheless, true, and the appearance of paradox would vanish, if it were stated more naturally and correctly.
country discovery soldier
To estimate the value of Newton's discoveries, or the delight communicated by Shakespeare and Milton, by the price at which their works have sold, would be but a poor measure of the degree in which they have elevated and enchanted their country; nor would it be less grovelling and incongruous to estimate the benefit which the country has derived from the Revolution of 1688, by the pay of the soldiers, and all other payments concerned in effecting it.
views political branches
The science of political economy is essentially practical, and applicable to the common business of human life. There are few branches of human knowledge where false views may do more harm, or just views more good.