Collective Rights

"neither a general in war, nor a statesman in peace, could ever perform any glorious exploits, or do any notable service to the public, without the concurrence of other men's endeavors?"

"there is such a thing as natural society, which comprehends all men. . . ."

"Such things, therefore, being by nature common, should accordingly be kept open for the free use of all men; and of those which are our own we should always be giving something that may contribute to the benefit and welfare of the whole."

"Not but that a moderate desire of riches, and bettering a man's estate, so long as it abstains from oppressing others, is allowable enough; but a very great care ought always to be taken that we be not drawn to any injustice by it."

"There is no great difficulty in determining such cases; for it is certain, if you take away anything from another, though never so useless and insignificant creature. . . it is an inhuman action, and plainly contrary to the laws of nature. . . ."

"It [theft] ruins all manner of society and intercourse amongst men; since it is plain that if once men arrive at such a pass as to plunder and injure the rest of their neighbors. . . ."

"Should an ignorant body sell a quantity of gold, and suppose it to be copper; is a good man obliged to tell him that is gold, or may he buy for a penny what is worth a thousand pence?"

Cicero De Officiis

Virtue and the Body

"How then came it about that, of all the existing species, mankind alone should relinquish man's nature, forget the body, and find its Chief Good not in the whole man but in a part of man?"
Cicero
De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum
Rackaham trans. Book Four