The greatest danger to which society is exposed to-day is that of another shipwreck on this rock.
Singularly enough, systematic communism--the deliberate negation of property--is conceived under the direct influence of the proprietary prejudice; and property is the basis of all communistic theories.
The members of a community, it is true, have no private property; but the community is proprietor, and proprietor not only of the goods, but of the persons and wills.

In consequence of this principle of absolute property, labor, which should be only a condition imposed upon man by Nature, becomes in all communities a human commandment, and therefore odious.

Passive obedience, irreconcilable with a reflecting will, is strictly enforced.

Fidelity to regulations, which are always defective, however wise they may be thought, allows of no complaint.

Life, talent, and all the human faculties are the property of the State, which has the right to use them as it pleases for the common good.