“Most men work only in order to live, and, in order to live, they must cultivate a soil that does not belong to them.”Nicolas Chamfort · Maxime și cugetări · 1795 · Maxima 11
The work of the many is not their own: they till another's land and harvest just enough to keep working.
Chamfort describes the condition of the many: work is not their expression but merely a means of surviving in a system owned by others. The mechanism is alienation: whoever tills another's land labors not for themselves but for someone else. The line was written before Marx, yet anticipates the idea of labor foreign to the laborer. A modern example: an employee who produces enormous value for a corporation and can barely pay rent.
Why it matters The line remains relevant in any discussion about wages, inequality, and work that leaves no room for a life of one's own.