Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
French socialist and anarchist thinker (1809 to 1865); author of What Is Property?
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What they believe
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Restoring religion requires condemning the Church
To restore religion, gentlemen, it is necessary to condemn the Church.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1840This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 22 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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Restoring religion requires condemning the Church
To restore religion, gentlemen, it is necessary to condemn the Church.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Property is robbery, just as slavery is murder
Why, then, to this other question: WHAT IS PROPERTY! may I not likewise answer, IT IS ROBBERY, without the certainty of being misunderstood; the second proposition being no other than a transformation of the first?
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Neither labour, occupation nor law can create property
I contend that neither labor, nor occupation, nor law, can create property; that it is an effect without a cause: am I censurable?
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
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Political equality requires abolishing property
If you wish to enjoy political equality, abolish property; otherwise, why do you complain?
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Every argument made for property ends up leading to equality
By this method of investigation, we soon see that every argument which has been invented in behalf of property, WHATEVER IT MAY BE, always and of necessity leads to equality; that is, to the negation of property.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Liberty, equality and security are absolute rights, unlike property
To sum up: liberty is an absolute right, because it is to man what impenetrability is to matter,—a sine qua non of existence; equality is an absolute right, because without equality there is no society; security is an absolute right, because in the eyes of every man his own liberty and life are as precious as another's.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Under property, the right to use a thing cannot be separated from the right to abuse it
In the matter of property, use and abuse are necessarily indistinguishable.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Only society, not the individual, is the permanent possessor of things
Man receives his usufruct from the hands of society, which alone is the permanent possessor. The individual passes away, society is deathless.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Turning possession of land into property must be resisted to the end
Lay hold who will, or who can, of the sun's rays, the passing breeze, or the sea's billows; he has my consent, and my pardon for his bad intentions. But let any living man dare to change his right of territorial possession into the right of property, and I will declare war upon him, and wage it to the death!
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Equal needs imply equal rights, and with scarce land that means equal possession
In a word, equality of rights is proved by equality of needs. Now, equality of rights, in the case of a commodity which is limited in amount, can be realized only by equality of possession.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Nations have no more right than individuals to abuse their land
The right of use and abuse belongs no more to nations than to men; and the time will come when a war waged for the purpose of checking a nation in its abuse of the soil will be regarded as a holy war.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
A tenant who improves land earns a right to part of it
The tenant, by improving the land, has imparted a new value to the property; he, therefore, has a right to a part of the property.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Capitalists do not pay for the collective power of workers' combined labour
To be accurate, it must be said that the capitalist has paid as many times one day's wage as he has employed laborers each day,—which is not at all the same thing. For he has paid nothing for that immense power which results from the union and harmony of laborers, and the convergence and simultaneousness of their efforts.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
A person's talent is the product of society's accumulated knowledge
Just as the creation of every instrument of production is the result of collective force, so also are a man's talent and knowledge the product of universal intelligence and of general knowledge slowly accumulated by a number of masters, and through the aid of many inferior industries.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Talent cannot be given a money value
Now, it is impossible to place a money value on any talent whatsoever, since talent and money have no common measure.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Every worker is in lasting debt to society, and the proprietor betrays a trust
The laborer, in his relation to society, is a debtor who of necessity dies insolvent. The proprietor is an unfaithful guardian who denies the receipt of the deposit committed to his care, and wishes to be paid for his guardianship down to the last day.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Where property exists, equal voting rights are a violation of it
In a country where property exists, equality of electoral rights is a violation of property.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Property exploits the weak, while communism exploits the strong
Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is the exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Communism is opposed to the free exercise of human faculties
Communism is essentially opposed to the free exercise of our faculties, to our noblest desires, to our deepest feelings.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
One can be a firm friend of order and still be an anarchist in the full sense of the term
Although a firm friend of order, I am (in the full force of the term) an anarchist.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Abolishing property while keeping possession would transform society and drive out evil
Possession is a right; property is against right. Suppress property while maintaining possession, and, by this simple modification of the principle, you will revolutionize law, government, economy, and institutions; you will drive evil from the face of the earth.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
Any government of people by people is oppression
The government of man by man (under whatever name it be disguised) is oppression. Society finds its highest perfection in the union of order with anarchy.
What is Property? (1840; Benjamin Tucker translation) Said c. 1840
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