Quotes About Ownership

Today, a single affluent family generally has more timepieces at home than an entire medieval country.

A pirate who loots a Spanish treasure fleet and buries a chest full of glittering coins on the beach of some Caribbean island is not a capitalist.

Rather, it was written by tying knots on colourful cords called quipus. Each quipu consisted of many cords of different colours, made of wool or cotton. On each cord, several knots were tied in different places. A single quipu could contain hundreds of cords and thousands of knots. By combining different knots on different cords with different colours, it was possible to record large amounts of mathematical data relating to, for example, tax collection and property ownership.2

Does the data about my DNA, my brain, and my life belong to me, to the government, to a corporation, or to the human collective?

Even if the market offers a good price, certain things just aren't done. Parents mustn't sell their children into slavery; a devout Christian must not commit a mortal sin; a loyal knight must never betray his lord; and ancestral tribal lands shall never be sold to foreigners.

As algorithms push humans out of the job market, wealth and power might become concentrated in the hands of the tiny elite that owns the all-powerful algorithms, creating unprecedented social and political inequality.

To ensure that the pigs can't run away, farmers in northern New Guinea slice off a chunk of each pig's nose. This causes severe pain whenever the pig tries to sniff. Since the pigs cannot find food or even find their way around without sniffing, this mutilation makes them completely dependent on their human owners. In another area of New Guinea, it has been customary to gouge out pigs' eyes, so that they cannot even see where they're going.7

If gods can possess land and employ people, why not algorithms?

Property is a prerequisite for long-term inequality.

El capital se va paulatinamente de los estados dictatoriales que no defienden a los individuos privados y su propiedad. En cambio, afluye a los estados que hacen cumplir la norma de la ley y de la propiedad privada.

Hence the first religious effect of the Agricultural revolution was to turn plants and animals from equal members of a spiritual round table into property

Though Toyota or Argentina has neither a body nor a mind, they are subject to international laws, they can own land and money, and they can sue and be sued in court. We might soon grant similar status to algorithms.

Even more alarmingly, the richest one hundred people together own more than the poorest four billion.

Everything we personally own that's made, sold, shipped, stored, cleaned, and ultimately thrown away does some environmental harm every step of the way, harm that we're either directly responsible for or is done on our behalf.

The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.

Descul?ii strig?: p?mînt, p?mînt, p?mînt!... P?mînt este ?i, totu?i, p?mînt nu este. Sau, nu e al cui îl strope?te cu sudoarea.

I never worry because I know who I am and I know Whose I am.

The earth and everything in it were created by God, and as the Creator, He is the rightful owner. He entrusts parts to us for a short time, but we're wise to see ourselves as managers instead of owners.

We bring a smile to God's face when we express thanks for what we have instead of complaining because we don't have the latest version of a toy we want. We give God joy when we take care of what He has loaned us instead of trashing things.

I used to have this little mouse. I buy birds from the pet store and I let them go.

We all invite our own devils, and we must exorcise our own.

Life was created for you and not the contrary. Remove it from your heart and put it in your hand to master your destiny.

I understand he's not guilty of anything except maybe loving too much. This boy, he is just ... mine.

As Cherokee writer Thomas King says, "Take it. It's yours. Do with it what you will. But don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now.