Quote

The greatest folly is to accept expert statements uncritically. At the very least, we should always seek another opinion.

Garrett Hardin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Opinion
Experts
Another
Folly
Always
Statements
Seek
Accept
Accepting
Greatest
Uncritically
Least
Expert

More quotes by Garrett Hardin

Image
(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
Garrett Hardin
Image
The population problem has no technical solution it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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
Image
Thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity
Garrett Hardin
Image
However, I think the major opposition to ecology has deeper roots than mere economics ecology threatens widely held values so fundamental that they must be called religious.
Garrett Hardin
Image
No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
Ecology is the overall science of which economics is a minor speciality.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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.
Garrett Hardin
Image
Moreover, the practical recommendations deduced from ecological principles threaten the vested interests of commerce it is hardly surprising that the financial and political power created by these investments should be used sometimes to suppress environmental impact studies.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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
Image
The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.
Garrett Hardin
Image
Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.
Garrett Hardin
Image
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
Image
Every plausible policy must be followed by the question 'And then what?'
Garrett Hardin
Image
Value is a relative concept: the value of each action is determined by comparing it with other possible actions.
Garrett Hardin
Image
A finite world can support only a finite population therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
Garrett Hardin
Image
In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.
Garrett Hardin
Image
Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species
Garrett Hardin