“[For the Romans] an essential element of the Law of Nature is the equality of man, specifically, equality before the law, and the principle of human rights, including the rights to property, which antedated the state, and thus are independent of it. Fifteen hundred years later these ideas would furnish the philosophical cornerstone of Western democracy.”

Source: Property and Freedom (1999), p.12

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Richard Pipes 46
American historian 1923–2018

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