Natural Rights

The first man who, having

1. fenced in a piece of land, said
2. “This is mine,” and
3. found people naive enough to believe him,

that man was the true founder of civil society.

• From how many crimes,
• wars, and
• murders, from how many
• horrors and
• misfortunes

might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows:

Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, 1754