Leo XIII Quotes

Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.

Property is proper to man.

Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own. This is one of the chief points of distinction between man and the animal creation.

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of his hands are properly his.

Children learn many principles of natural law at a very early age. For example: they learn that when one child has picked up an apple or a flower, it is his, and that his associates must not take it from him against his will.

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

Moral principles of liberty that endow a person with the right to claim and acquire property at the same time oblige that person to respect every other person’s equal right to do the same.

Every man is born with a double right. First, a right of freedom to his person, …. Secondly, a right before any other man, to inherit, with his brethren, his father's goods.

The right of private ownership of goods, including productive goods, has permanent validity. It is part of the natural order.

… since the right of possessing goods privately has been conferred not by man's law, but by nature, public authority cannot abolish it, but can only control its exercise and bring it into conformity with the common weal

Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution . .

Without property rights, no other rights are possible.

There can be to the ownership of anything no rightful title which is not derived from the title of the producer and does not rest upon the natural right of the man to himself.

Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property.

Make no mistake. Without individual property, none are free.

All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety

I have a right to nothing which another has a right to take away

Man has a primary property right to his person and his labor.

In fact, a fundamental interdependence exists between the personal right to liberty and the personal right to property.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

The dichotomy between personal liberties and property rights is a false one. Property does not have rights. People have rights.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

But assuming the same premises, to wit, that all men are equal by the law of nature and of nations, the right of property in slaves falls to the ground; for one who is equal to another cannot be the owner or property of that other.

That sort of fundamentalism which treats possession of private property not as a desirable economic and personal asset but as a condition of liberty is a form of primitive religion.