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What is Property? by P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph) Proudhon
page 53 of 595 (08%)
coming into notice--PROPERTY IS ROBBERY!--was of a nature to
repel from your book even those serious minds who do not judge by
appearances, had you persisted in maintaining it in its rude
simplicity. But if you have softened the form, you are none the
less faithful to the ground-work of your doctrines; and although
you have done me the honor to give me a share in this perilous
teaching, I cannot accept a partnership which, as far as talent
goes, would surely be a credit to me, but which would compromise
me in all other respects.

"I agree with you in one thing only; namely, that all kinds of
property get too frequently abused in this world. But I do not
reason from the abuse to the abolition,--an heroic remedy too
much like death, which cures all evils. I will go farther: I
will confess that, of all abuses, the most hateful to me are
those of property; but once more, there is a remedy for this evil
without violating it, all the more without destroying it. If the
present laws allow abuse, we can reconstruct them. Our civil
code is not the Koran; it is not wrong to examine it. Change,
then, the laws which govern the use of property, but be sparing
of anathemas; for, logically, where is the honest man whose hands
are entirely clean? Do you think that one can be a robber
without knowing it, without wishing it, without suspecting it?
Do you not admit that society in its present state, like every
man, has in its constitution all kinds of virtues and vices
inherited from our ancestors? Is property, then, in your eyes a
thing so simple and so abstract that you can re-knead and
equalize it, if I may so speak, in your metaphysical mill? One
who has said as many excellent and practical things as occur in
these two beautiful and paradoxical improvisations of yours
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