Gerrard Winstanley, political/religious reformer, was born #OnThisDay 1609. Regarding the earth a ‘common treasury’, Winstanley led the Civil War-era ‘Diggers’ movement that established communities across England to cultivate waste and common land.

Thread of his best quotes

“The great Creator Reason made the Earth to be a Common Treasury...Man had Domination given to him, over the Beasts, Birds, and Fishes; but not one word was spoken in the beginning, That one branch of mankind should rule over another.“

The True Levellers Standard Advanced, 1649.

“All rich men live at ease, feeding and clothing themselves by the labors of other men, not by their own...rich men receive all they have from the laborers hand, and what they give, they give away other mens labors, not their own.”

The Law of Freedom in a Platform, 1652.

“Every one talks of freedom, but there are but few that act for freedom, and the actors for freedom are oppressed by the talkers and verbal professors of freedom.”

"England is a Prison; the variety of subtilties in the Laws preserved by the Sword, are bolts, bars, and doors of the prison; the Lawyers are Jaylors, and poor men are the prisoners."

A New Year’s Gift for the Parliament and Army, 1650.

“Since William the Conqueror came in, all the kings did confirm the old laws to uphold that Conquest [which] still bind the hands of the enslaved English from enjoying the freedom of their creation.”

An Appeal to the House of Commons, 1649.

“O England, England, wouldst thou have thy Government sound and healthful? Then cast about, and see, and search diligently to finde out all those burthens that came in by Kings, and remove them.”

The Law of Freedom in a Platform, 1652.

“All the Commons and waste Ground in England, and in the whole World, shall be taken in by the People in righteousness, not owning any Propriety; but taking the Earth to be a Common Treasury, as it was first made for all.”

The True Levellers Standard Advanced, 1649.

“Those that Buy and Sell Land, and are landlords, have got it either by Oppression, or Murther, or Theft; and all landlords lives in the breach of the Seventh and Eighth Commandements, Thous shalt not steal, nor kill.”

The True Levellers Standard Advanced, 1649.