73 Quotes by Garrett Hardin

Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all.

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, suffers. Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing, but the inexorable succession of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed.

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

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

Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.

A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality.

But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.

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

Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.