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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.
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
Religion
Dogs
Moping
Keep
Atheist
Reputed
Also
Dog
Flabby
Must
Blessing
Duly
Atheism
Fundamentalists
Created
Fleas
Situation
Thankful
Getting
Blessings
Rationalists
More quotes by Garrett Hardin
The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.
Garrett Hardin
In an approximate way, the logic of commons has been understood for a long time, perhaps since the discovery of agriculture or the invention of private property in real estate.
Garrett Hardin
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.
Garrett Hardin
The greatest folly is to accept expert statements uncritically. At the very least, we should always seek another opinion.
Garrett Hardin
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.
Garrett Hardin
Value is a relative concept: the value of each action is determined by comparing it with other possible actions.
Garrett Hardin
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
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 we trust?
Garrett Hardin
Incommensurables cannot be compared.
Garrett Hardin
A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.
Garrett Hardin
In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.
Garrett Hardin
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.
Garrett Hardin
Numeracy: 1. The art of putting numbers to things, that is, assigning amounts to variables in order that practical decisions may be reach. 2. That aspect of education (beyond mere literacy) which takes account of quantitative aspects of reality.
Garrett Hardin
Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.
Garrett Hardin
(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
Garrett Hardin
To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy it, or even to pretend we enjoy it.
Garrett Hardin
A finite world can support only a finite population therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
Garrett Hardin
Thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity
Garrett Hardin
The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.
Garrett Hardin
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.
Garrett Hardin