“Only the scum of the population do it”

— Mark Twain, book Roughing It

As quoted in Roughing It http://www.friesian.com/quotes.htm (1872). <br class="br">Roughing It (1872) <br class="br">Context: No California gentleman or lady ever abuses or oppresses a Chinaman, under any circumstances, an explanation that seems to be much needed in the east. Only the scum of the population do it; they and their children. They, and, naturally and consistently, the policemen and politicians, likewise, for these are the dust-licking pimps and slaves of the scum, there as well as elsewhere in America.

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Mark Twain637

American author and humorist 1835–1910

Garrett Hardin (1915–2003) American ecologist

Tragedy of the Commons, 1968.
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Gunnar Myrdal book An American Dilemma

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Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

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Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"It's O.K."
1990s, Infinite (1996)

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Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) British political economist

Source: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter I, paragraph 18, lines 1-2

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Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

The War and Russian Social-Democracy (September 1917), The Lenin Anthology
1910s

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Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Sick-Nursing and Health-Nursing" (1893)

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K. S. Lal book Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India

Preface (p. vi).
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Edward Heath (1916–2005) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1970–1974)

Interview, November, 1976.[citation needed]
Post-Prime Ministerial

“There is only one way to get the change we need - and that is to vote to go; because all EU history shows that they only really listen to a population when it says no.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Source: EU referendum: Leaving EU a 'leap in the dark' says Cameron https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35634239 BBC News (22 February 2016)

“Only the scum of the population do it”

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