Dorothy Day Quotes

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

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

The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man’s nature.

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.

Property is desirable, is a positive good in the world.

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

Without property rights, no other rights are possible.

It is a comfortable feeling to know that you stand on your own ground. Land is about the only thing that can't fly away.

... to teach the necessity of respect for the rights of persons and property as fundamental to every form of government...to teach the duty of government, to encourage and protect individual and group initiative and enterprise, to foster the right to work, earn, save and acquire property, and to preserve the ownership and lawful use of property when acquired.

American capitalism no longer guarantees the property rights of small owners when they conflict with private interests such as corporations building pipelines. Their need for corporate profits overrides what once were private property rights.

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.

Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff

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.

The prime element of the value of property is the knowledge that its peaceful use will be defended by government.

In no country in the world is the love of property more active and more anxious than in the United States.

A relation is formed betwixt every man and the fruits of his own labour, the very thing we call property, which he himself is sensible of, and of which every other is equally sensible. Yours and mine are terms in all languages, familiar among savages, and understood even by children. This is a fact, which every human creature can testify.

What a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent.

In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does the majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.

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.

Private property is a very fundamental and very long-term institution.

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

The insecurity of property in Ireland, whether real or supposed … prevents the English or Scotch capitalist from transmitting materials to be manufactured in Ireland.

No man should be allowed to own any land he does not use.

What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth for the land is our mother… How can one man say it belongs only to him?