De Republiek

Even those who had been enriched by their own industry, could hardly base their proprietorship on better claims. It was in vain to repeat: ‘I built this well; I gained this spot by my industry’. Who gave you your standing, it might be answered, and what right have you to demand payment of us for doing what we never asked you to do? Do you not know that numbers of your fellow-creatures are starving, for want of what you have too much of? You ought to have had the express and universal consent of mankind, before appropriating more of the common subsistence than you needed for your own maintanance.