Quote by John Locke
But yet, if after all, any one will needs have it so, that by this Donation of God, Adam was made sole Proprietor of the whole Earth, what will this be to his Soveraignty? And how will it appear, that Property in Land gives a Man Power over the Life of another? Or how will the Possession even of the whole Earth, give any one a Soveraign Arbitray Authority over the Persons of Men? The most specious thing to be said, is, that he that is Proprietor of the whole World, may deny all the rest of Mankind Food, and so at his pleasure starve them, if they will not acknowledge his Soveraignty, and Obey his Will. If this were true, it would be a good Argument to Prove, that there was never any such Property, that God never gave any such Private Dominion; since it is more reasonable to think, that God who bid Mankind increase and multiply, should rather himself give thema all a Right, to make use of the Food and Rayment, and other Conveniences of Life, the Materials whereof he' had so plentifully provided for theml than to make them depend upon the Will of a Man for their Subsistence, who should have Power to destroy them all when he pleased, and who being no better than other Men, was in Succession likelier by want and the depnedance of a scanty Fortune, to tye them to hard Service, than by liberal Allowance of the Conveniencies of Life, to promore teh great Design of God, Increase and Multiply: He that doubts this, let him look into the Absolute Monarchies of the World, and see what becomes of the Conveniencies of Life, and the Multitudes of People.