Property is theft! (French: La propriété, c'est le vol !) is a slogan coined by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government.
If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder!, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required . . . 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?
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property?
Read more about Property Is Theft!: Overview, Similar Phrases, Criticisms, Footnotes
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“Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)