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John Locke
Sect. 128.
"For in the state of nature, to omit the liberty he has of
innocent delights, a man has two powers.
The first is to do whatsoever he thinks fit for the preservation of
himself, and others within the permission of the law of nature: by which
law, common to them all, he and all the rest of mankind are one
community, make up one society, distinct from all other creatures. And
were it not for the corruption and vitiousness of degenerate men, there
would be no need of any other; no necessity that men should separate
from this great and natural community, and by positive agreements
combine into smaller and divided associations.
The other power a man has in the state of nature, is the power to punish
the crimes committed against that law. Both these he gives up, when he
joins in a private, if I may so call it, or particular politic society,
and incorporates into any commonwealth, separate from the rest of
mankind."
Marcus Aurelius
"VII. A branch cut off from the continuity of that which was next unto
it, must needs be cut off from the whole tree: so a man that is divided
from another man, is divided from the whole society. A branch is cut off
by another, but he that hates and is averse, cuts himself off from his
neighbour, and knows not that at the same time he divides himself from
the whole body, or corporation. But herein is the gift and mercy of God,
the Author of this society, in that, once cut off we may grow together
and become part of the whole again."
Julius Caesar
"XXII... lest they may be anxious to acquire extensive
estates, and the more powerful drive the weaker from their possessions;
lest they construct their houses with too great a desire to avoid cold
and heat; lest the desire of wealth spring up, from which cause
divisions and discords arise; and that they may keep the common people
in a contented state of mind, when each sees his own means placed on an
equality with [those of] the most powerful"
Adam Smith
"In every other art and manufacture, the effects of the division of labour
are similar to what they are in this very trifling one, though, in many of
them, the labour can neither be so much subdivided, nor reduced to so
great a simplicity of operation. The division of labour, however, so far
as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable
increase of the productive powers of labour. The separation of different
trades and employments from one another, seems to have taken place in
consequence of this advantage. This separation, too, is generally carried
furthest in those countries which enjoy the highest degree of industry and
improvement; what is the work of one man, in a rude state of society,
being generally that of several in an improved one."
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