Quotes by Garrett Hardin

“The individual benefits as an individual from his ability to deny the truth even though society as a whole, of which he is a part, suffers.”

“Natural selection favors the forces of psychological denial. The individual benefits as an individual from his ability to deny the truth even though society as a whole, of which he is a part, suffe...”

“Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all.”

“Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family, the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask, if we cannot trust the Bible, what can w...”

“No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.”

“Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.”

“Moreover, the practical recommendations deduced from ecological principles threaten the vested interests of commerce; it is hardly surprising that the financial and political power created by these...”

“Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”

“A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.”

“The class of No technical solution problems has members. My thesis is that the population problem, as conventionally conceived, is a member of this class.”

“A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.”

“Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit -- in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best int...”

“Even at the religious level the creationist view is a biased one. The only creation story they mention is the one in Genesis (in which there are actually two stories — the version in the first chap...”

“But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere ... Fundamentalists are panicked by the appare...”

“Our desire to conserve wildlife for our children and our children's children forces us to bring out into the open conservation's secret question : Does God give a prize for the maximum number of hu...”

“The overall system of a sizeable community struggling to survive in a crowded world may be either socialism or privatism. Either system may work, more or less. But, except in non-critical areas of ...”

“Many of the environmentalists who moved into the environmental movement after Silent Spring ... detested pollution and craved purity. Absolute purity. They wanted to enforce zero tolerance on all e...”

“At this late date in the post-Christian Era, it might be questioned whether the Bible should even be brought into an ethical discussion. I argue that it should. Many people who do not explicitly ca...”

“Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.”

“It is a mistake to think that we can control the breeding of mankind in the long run by an appeal to conscience.”