You are in this world as strangers. Go north or south or east or west, and wherever you stop you will find a man to chase you away crying, “This is mine.” And after you have gone through all the countries of the world, you will come back knowing that there is nowhere a poor bit of land where, as a matter of right, your wife can bring forth her firstborn, where you can rest after tilling the soil or where your children can bury your bones.

— THE ABBE LAMENNAIS, Paroles d’un Croyant (1834), Chap. IX.

“This dog belongs to me,” said these poor children; “that place in the sun is mine!” Behold the beginning of all usurpation upon earth!

— BLAISE PASCAL, Pensees, Article VI., Sec. 53.