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The moment we leave past experience as the foundation of our…

Quote byThomas Robert Malthus · 1766–1834

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter XII, paragraph 10.

English (original)

The moment we leave past experience as the foundation of our conjectures concerning the future; and still more, if our conjectures absolutely contradict past experience, we are thrown upon a wide field of uncertainty, and any one supposition is then just as good as another.

— Thomas Robert Malthus

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