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Shawords

Quote#World

[T]he instinct for control of land, drives back to the earliest times…

Quote byJohn Atkinson Hobson · 1858–1940

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Imperialism: A Study (1902), pp. 224-225.

English (original)

[T]he instinct for control of land, drives back to the earliest times when a wide range of land was necessary for a food supply for men or cattle, and is linked on to the "trek" habit, which survives more powerfully than is commonly supposed in civilised peoples. ... The animal lust of struggle, once a necessity, survives in the blood.

— John Atkinson Hobson

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