There is a desire of property in the sanest and best men, which Nature seems to have implanted as conservative of her works, and which is necessary to encourage and keep alive the arts.

Where there is no property there is no injustice.

An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in Utopia.

Like Michelangelo and Cellini, Florentines of every station are absorbed in acquiring real estate: a little apartment that can be rented to foreigners; a farm that will supply the owner with oil, wine, fruit, and flowers for the house.

No man divulges his revenue, or at least which way it comes in: but every one publishes his acquisitions.

Property is theft.

It should be remembered that the foundation of the social contract is property; and its first condition, that every one should be maintained in the peaceful possession of what belongs to him.

The first man to fence in a piece of land, saying 'This is mine," and who found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.

So soon as the possession of property becomes the basis of popular esteem, therefore, it becomes also a requisite to that complacency which we call self-respect.

The spirit of property doubles a man's strength.