“The natural right of property far from being protected, is systematically violated, and both government and law seem to exist chiefly or solely, in order to protect and organize the most efficacious means of protecting the violation….”

—  Thomas Hodgskin

Source: The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (1832), p. 53

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The natural right of property far from being protected, is systematically violated, and both government and law seem to…" by Thomas Hodgskin?
Thomas Hodgskin photo
Thomas Hodgskin21
British writer 1787–1869

Related quotes

Peter Kropotkin photo

“The millions of laws which exist for the regulation of humanity appear upon investigation to be divided into three principal categories: protection of property, protection of persons, protection of government.”

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, economist, activist, geogr…

Source: Law and Authority (1886), IV
Context: The millions of laws which exist for the regulation of humanity appear upon investigation to be divided into three principal categories: protection of property, protection of persons, protection of government. And by analyzing each of these three categories, we arrive at the same logical and necessary conclusion: the uselessness and hurtfulness of law.

Robert Sheckley photo

““I’m afraid not. According to the law, you must leave here at once.”
“But they’ll kill me!”
“That’s very true,” Frendlyer said. “Unfortunately, it can’t be helped. A victim, by definition, is one who is to be killed.”
“I thought this was a protective organization.”
“It is. But we protect rights, not victims. Your rights are not being violated.“”

Robert Sheckley book The Status Civilization

Source: The Status Civilization (1960), Chapter 3 (p. 19)

Harry V. Jaffa photo

“No, on the contrary, the Constitution exists to protect that right. The important point is that the Constitution exists to protect individual liberty and individual property. In fact, the most important of all of the rights, really the foundation of all rights, are the rights to private property. But the right to private property is a right for each individual human being to own himself.”

Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) American historian and collegiate professor

2000s, The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate (2002), Q&A

Ayn Rand photo

“The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence—to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.”

Ayn Rand book The Virtue of Selfishness

The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

Adolf Hitler photo

“We stand for the maintenance of private property... We shall protect free enterprise as the most expedient, or rather the sole possible economic order.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Quoted in Der Fuehrer, Hitler&#x27;s Rise to Power https://www.google.it/books/edition/Der_Fuehrer/_lUTAQAAMAAJ?hl=it&amp;gbpv=1&amp;bsq=%22We+stand+for+the+maintenance+of+private+property...+We+shall+protect+free+enterprise+as+the+most+expedient,+or+rather+the+sole+possible+economic+order.%22&amp;dq=%22We+stand+for+the+maintenance+of+private+property...+We+shall+protect+free+enterprise+as+the+most+expedient,+or+rather+the+sole+possible+economic+order.%22&amp;printsec=frontcover, by Konrad Heiden. Statement of the 1920. <br class="br">1920s

Bruce Schneier photo

“The lesson here is that it is insufficient to protect ourselves with laws; we need to protect ourselves with mathematics. Encryption is too important to be left solely to governments.”

Bruce Schneier (1963) American computer scientist

[John Wiley & Sons, 1996, Applied Cryptography 2nd edition Source Code in C, Bruce Schneier, http://www.schneier.com/book-applied.html]
Cryptography

Nelson Mandela photo

“In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions.
In the absence of these safeguards the phrase 'equality before the law', in so far as it is intended to apply to us, is meaningless and misleading.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

1960s, First court statement (1962)
Context: In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions.
In the absence of these safeguards the phrase 'equality before the law', in so far as it is intended to apply to us, is meaningless and misleading. All the rights and privileges to which I have referred are monopolized by whites, and we enjoy none of them. The white man makes all the laws, he drags us before his courts and accuses us, and he sits in judgement over us.

Howard Zinn photo

“The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again — freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the equal protection of the laws — I could count at least 30 such violations. Yet the president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, and all the agencies of the United States government at his disposal, were nowhere to be seen.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Describing the people who participated in the Freedom Rides to end segregation in Albany, Georgia. in You Can&#x27;t Be Neutral on A Moving Train http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/oldzinn.htm (1994) Ch. 4: &quot;My Name is Freedom&quot;: Albany, Georgia

Bronisław Komorowski photo

“We are witnessing the rebirth of nationalist ideology which violates human rights and international law under the cover of humanitarian slogans about protecting minorities. We recognize this all too well from the 1930s.”

Bronisław Komorowski (1952) Polish politician, president of Poland

&quot;Polish president warns in Berlin of rebirth of 1930s nationalism&quot; in Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-poland-president/polish-president-warns-in-berlin-of-rebirth-of-1930s-nationalism-idUSKBN0H51C420140910 (10 September 2014)

Thomas Jefferson photo

“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1800s, First Inaugural Address (1801)
Context: All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.

Related topics