Sunday, February 06, 2022
Private and Common Property
Aristotle, Politics 2.1 (1261 b; tr. H. Rackham):
From Augusto Franzini:
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Property that is common to the greatest number of owners receives the least attention; men care most for their private possessions, and for what they own in common less, or only so far as it falls to their own individual share; for in addition to the other reasons, they think less of it on the ground that someone else is thinking about it...
ἥκιστα γὰρ ἐπιμελείας τυγχάνει τὸ πλείστων κοινόν· τῶν γὰρ ἰδίων μάλιστα φροντίζουσιν, τῶν δὲ κοινῶν ἧττον, ἢ ὅσον ἑκάστῳ ἐπιβάλλει· πρὸς γὰρ τοῖς ἄλλοις ὡς ἑτέρου φροντίζοντος ὀλιγωροῦσι μᾶλλον...
From Augusto Franzini:
Il cane che ha cento padroni, salta il pasto.
Old Italian (north of Italy) proverb meaning "A dog subject to one hundred masters will starve (jump its meal)."
