In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable

The only thing we can really count on in this uncertain world is human unreliability itself.

The rational man finds that his share of the cost of the wastes he discharges into the commons is less than the cost of purifying his wastes before releasing them.

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.

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.

Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.

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.