Julian Simon Quotes

#1. Progress toward a more abundant material life does not come like manna from heaven ... My message certainly is not one of complacency. In this I agree with the doomsayers: our world needs the best efforts of all humanity to improve our lot.

Julian Simon

#2. Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking us to refrain from using resources now so that future generations can have them later is like asking the poor to make gifts to the rich.

Julian Simon

#3. Our whole evolution up to this point shows that human groups spontaneously evolve patterns of behavior, as well as patterns of training people for that behavior, which tend on balance to lead people to create rather than destroy. Humans are, on net balance, builders rather than destroyers.

Julian Simon

#4. The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination.

Julian Simon

#5. Human beings create more than they destroy.

Julian Simon

#6. The standard of living has risen along with the size of the world's population since the beginning of recorded time. There is no convincing economic reason why these trends toward a better life should not continue indefinitely.

Julian Simon

#7. Energy is the master resource, because energy enables us to convert one material into another. As natural scientists continue to learn more about the transformation of materials from one form to another with the aid of energy, energy will be even more important.

Julian Simon

#8. All of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for us to think through even a small fraction of the topics that we come across.

Julian Simon

#9. We now have in our hands - really, in our libraries - the technology to feed, clothe, and supply energy to an ever-growing population for the next seven billion years.

Julian Simon

#10. The most important benefit of population size and growth is the increase it brings to the stock of useful knowledge. Minds matter economically as much as, or more than, hands or mouths.

Julian Simon

#11. The essence of wealth is the capacity to control the forces of nature, and the extent of wealth depends upon the level of technology and the ability to create new knowledge.

Julian Simon