The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.

A writer may tell me that he thinks man will ultimately become an ostrich. I cannot properly contradict him.

The main peculiarity which distinguishes man from other animals is the means of his support-the power which he possesses of very greatly increasing these means.

I do not know that any writer has supposed that on this earth man will ultimately be able to live without food.

To prevent the recurrence of misery is, alas! beyond the power of man.

The love of independence is a sentiment that surely none would wish to see erased from the breast of man, though the parish law of England, it must be confessed, is a system of all others the most calculated gradually to weaken this sentiment, and in the end may eradicate it completely.

The finest minds seem to be formed rather by efforts at original thinking, by endeavours to form new combinations, and to discover new truths, than by passively receiving the impressions of other men's ideas.

Man cannot live in the midst of plenty.

The exertions that men find it necessary to make, in order to support themselves or families, frequently awaken faculties that might otherwise have lain for ever dormant, and it has been commonly remarked that new and extraordinary situations generally create minds adequate to grapple with the difficulties in which they are involved.