Top 29 Quotes by Garrett Hardin

You cannot do only one thing.

Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.

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.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

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.

In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.

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.

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

Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the general public under frontier conditions, because there is no public, the same behavior in a metropolis is unbearable.