All are brought into contact with it. Nothing is consumed as in the case of food, and you cannot drink so as to prevent me from drinking too. From that common store you can convert nothing into your private possession. What you take remains unharmed for me to take also. I do not have to wait for you to breathe out what you have breathed in that I may then breathe it in.
Nothing ever belongs to one man or to any group of men as a private possession.
The whole is common to all at one and the same time. Truth, therefore, is less like the things we touch or taste or smell, and more like the things we hear and see. And every sight offered to the eyes is exactly the same for all who see it, and is seen by all at the same time. But though there is similarity there is also a great difference. A whole word is not spoken all at once.