Wisdom About the God-given Rights to Own and Manage Property and Other Resources

1. 1. Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.
    Samuel Adams (1722-1803)
  2. All men have certain inherent natural rights of which they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
    George Mason (1725-1792)
  3. The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
    John Adams (1735-1826)
  4. Freedom and Property Rights are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other.
    George Washington
    From the Bible study session, you might remember that President Calvin Coolidge said something very similar. Here’s what Coolidge (1872-1933) said: Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
  5. A right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
  6. The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
    James Madison (1751-1836)
  7. Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.
    William Howard Taft (1857-1930)
  8. What do you call it when someone steals someone else’s money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else’s money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else’s money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice.
    Thomas Sowell (b. 1930)

A PDF file of these quotations is available here.