#property

We are accused of being obsessed by property. The truth is the other way round. It is the society and culture in question which is so obsessed. Yet to an obsessive his obsession always seems to be of the nature of things and so is not recognized for what it is. The relation between property and art in European culture appears natural to that culture, and consequently if somebody demonstrates the extent of the property interest in a given cultural field, it is said to be a demonstration of his obsession. And this allows the Cultural Establishment to project for a little longer its false rationalized image of itself. ↗

— John Berger

#art

All sentient beings should have at least one right—the right not to be treated as property ↗

— Gary L. Francione

#abolitionist #ahimsa #ethical #francione #moral-imperative

You are not property. If you choose to leave, no one will stop you. ↗

— Elizabeth Vaughan

#property #slave #slavery #slavery

The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority. ↗

— George Bancroft

#best #development #few #free #government

I wish to note that intellectual property theft by a government represents the very essence of organized crime. ↗

— Howard Berman

#essence #government #i #i wish #intellectual

Abscond - to move in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another. ↗

— Ambrose Bierce

#commonly #move #mysterious #property #way

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights. ↗

— Thomas Sowell

#benefit #both #exercise #free #free speech

My home was 25 miles from the gulf, and I did not want to see it become a shorefront property. ↗

— John Breaux

#did #gulf #home #i #miles

Unlike despotisms, modern democracies are not supposed promiscuously to accumulate property and then charge their taxpayers to maintain it. But that is what they do. Governments are always trying to extend their responsibilities and their estates, and it is very hard for parliaments to reign them in. ↗

— James Buchan

#always #charge #democracies #estates #extend

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#ideas #intellectual-property #internet #design