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In the beginning of Avengers: Endgame,

Thanos destroyed all of the Infinity Stones.

But, why did he do that?

Thanos had wiped out half of the universe's population, but given the population of living beings can grow exponentially, why did he think that his job was done?

In optimum conditions on a Petri dish, E. Coli bacteria colonies can double every 20 minutes. Most bacteria colonies double within a week on Petri dishes. With this analogy, the universe population can grow back to previous state within blink of cosmic time scale.

Given Thanos was highly knowledgeable and far-sighted, why didn't he keep Infinity Stones around to do the snapping again?

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    You mean apart from the fact that he's insane?
    – Paulie_D
    Jan 17, 2020 at 5:52
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    Does this answer your question? What is Thanos's motivation for his action?
    – Hans Olo
    Jan 17, 2020 at 10:37
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    @Rebel-Scum That question is asking why Thanos chose to wipe out half of all life in the first place, given it would just grow back. This question is asking why Thanos destroyed the stones instead of just snapping again if/when the universe grew back to where it was. They're not duplicates.
    – F1Krazy
    Jan 17, 2020 at 10:45
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    He'd watched the sun rise on a grateful universe. He may have thought that his actions, and the expected consequences, would teach everyone in the universe to not have so many kids.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Jan 17, 2020 at 11:24
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    @Rebel-Scum The questions have the same motivation for asking but the answers are somewhat different as the actual question is about a different event.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jan 17, 2020 at 11:29

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Thanos' mission was to save the universe by halving its living population. Once he did that he had no need for the Infinity Stones and they could "only serve as a temptation".

Thanos: The universe required correction. After that, the Stones served no purpose, beyond temptation.

Avengers: Endgame

He also did it so no one could undo what he did. He knew he had enemies and people who would try to reverse what he did. Destroying the Stones means that, that can't happen and the Snap stays done.

Thanos: I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am... inevitable.

Avengers: Endgame

Now if you want to find logic in what Thanos did and why he killed half of everyone then you're not going to find it. Thanos wanted to "save" the universe on one particular way but he doesn’t really think it through. He thinks he is right and that's all that matters and so he will do it. Half of the reason is because he couldn't save Titan this way and the other half is because he thinks he's smarter than everyone else. Of course he also has some evidence that its right as he tells Gamora of her home planet:

Thanos: Going to bed hungry, scrounging for scraps. Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I'm the one who stopped that. Do you know what's happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It's a paradise.

Avengers: Infinity War

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    In Avengers, Thanos claims to Gamorra that halving the population of her planet helped them to become prosperous. This probably confirmed to him that his method was right (confirmation bias is strong). He also claimed that people should see him as a savior instead of a murderer, so he was probably convinced that survivors would understand the benefits of the snap and start controlling their population.
    – Taladris
    Jan 17, 2020 at 8:35
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    @Taladris of course, I tried to mainly skim over it whilst addressing the OPs point as that wasn’t the main point of the question.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jan 17, 2020 at 9:03
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    @BabyYoda "Thanos destroyed all of the Infinity Stones. But, why did he do that?" - His quotes from Endgame that I have included directly address that. So he wasn't tempted and so the original snap remained permanent. He's also confident this method works because it worked on Gamora's home planet. I'm not sure anything else is really needed.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jan 17, 2020 at 11:44
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    @BabyYoda He's observed her planet for what? A couple of decades at most. I think you're really overthinking it. Thanos doesn't care too much about the long term. He's "fixing" things at the present.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jan 17, 2020 at 11:50
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    @BabyYoda: “ He might have observed Gamora's home planet for few hundred years. Is this the full picture?” Does it matter? Thanos believes that what he's doing will lead to the same results that he claims he saw on Gamora's home planet, universe-wide. That's why he destroys the stones. He thinks he's successfully completed the task and obtained the outcome he wants. If you want to argue about whether he's actually obtained it or not, then I guess we can go back to your Petri dish, but that's a different question that's probably off-topic for this site.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Jan 17, 2020 at 13:11

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