The earth having been given to mankind in common occupancy, each individual seems to have by nature a right to possess and cultivate an equal share.

— PROFESSOR WILLIAM OGILVIE, of Aberdeen (1781) Essay on the Right of Property in Land, Part I, Section I.

“As I am born to the earth, so the earth is given to me, what I want of it to till and to plant; nor could I without pusillanimity omit to claim so much.”

— EMERSON, The Conservative.