Do you imagine that it is by some way of nature that your property has passed from your ancestors to you? Such is not the case. This order is but founded on the simple will and pleasure of legislators, who may have had good reasons for what they did, but not one of their reasons was taken from any natural right of yours over these possessions.
— BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662), Letter to the young Duke of Roannez,
quoted by Matthew Arnold in Last Essays on Church and Religion, p. 165.
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