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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.

Garrett Hardin

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Garrett Hardin
Age: 88 †
Born: 1915
Born: April 21
Died: 2003
Died: September 14
Biologist
Demographer
Ecologist
Statistician
University Teacher
Dallas
Texas
Garrett James Hardin
Garrett J. Hardin
Society
Pursuing
Freedom
Ruin
Best
Rush
Believe
Destination
Men
Believes
Ruins
Toward
Interest
Commons

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Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.
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The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.
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Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
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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.
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People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.
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The population problem has no technical solution it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
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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.
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Ecology is the overall science of which economics is a minor speciality.
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No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.
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A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.
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The god who is reputed to have created fleas to keep dogs from moping over their situation must also have created fundamentalists to keep rationalists from getting flabby. Let us be duly thankful for out blessings.
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Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.
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We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society. It follows that any choice and decision with regard to the size of the family must irrevocably rest with the family itself, and cannot be made by anyone else.
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
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The greatest folly is to accept expert statements uncritically. At the very least, we should always seek another opinion.
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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.
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Every plausible policy must be followed by the question 'And then what?'
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You can never do merely one thing. The law applies to any action that changes something in a complex system. The point is that an action taken to alleviate a problem will trigger several effects, some of which may offset or even negate the one intended.
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The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.
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