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David Benatar Quotes

It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to

It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.

David Benatar
Children, People, Suffering
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.6, Oxford University Press

Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification. Indeed, most people do not even think about whether they should or should not make a baby. They just make one. In other words, procreation is usually the consequence of sex rather than the result of a decision to bring people into existence. Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child’s sake.

David Benatar
Life, Baby, Sex
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.2, Oxford University Press

Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad—and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people.

David Benatar
People, Quality, Too Late
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.7, Oxford University Press

We infrequently contemplate the harms that await any new-born child—pain, disappointment, anxiety, grief, and death. For any given child we cannot predict what form these harms will take or how severe they will be, but we can be sure that at least some of them will occur. None of this befalls the nonexistent. Only existers suffer harm.

David Benatar
Pain, Disappointment, Children
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.29, Oxford University Press

On my view there is no net benefit to coming into existence and thus coming into existence is never worth its costs.

David Benatar
Views, Cost, Benefits
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.13, Oxford University Press

As we have seen, nobody is lucky enough not to be born, everybody is unlucky enough to have been born – and particularly bad luck it is.

David Benatar
Luck, Enough, Born
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.7, Oxford University Press

It is unlikely that many people will take to heart the conclusion that coming into existence is always a harm. It is even less likely that many people will stop having children. By contrast, it is quite likely that my views either will be ignored or will be dismissed. As this response will account for a great deal of suffering between now and the demise of humanity, it cannot plausibly be thought of as philanthropic. That is not to say that it is motivated by any malice towards humans, but it does result from a self-deceptive indifference to the harm of coming into existence.

David Benatar
Children, Heart, Self
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.225, Oxford University Press

I am under no illusions. My position, no matter how clearly stated, is likely to be misunderstood.

David Benatar
Misunderstood, Matter, Illusion
David Benatar (2012). “The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys”, p.16, John Wiley & Sons

Coming into existence is always bad for those who come into existence. In other words, although we may not be able to say of the never-existent that never existing is good for them, we can say of the existent that existence is bad for them.

David Benatar
May, Able, Existence
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.4, Oxford University Press

Notice, by extension, that in a democracy those committed to non-procreation could never, in the long run, prevail politically against those committed to procreation.

David Benatar
Running, Long, Democracy
David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.11, Oxford University Press

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