What does property signify?

Property signifies that which has been given to me, which belongs to
me exclusively; that with which I can always do any thing I like;
that which no one can take away from me; that which will remain mine
to the end of my life, and precisely that which I am bound to use,
increase, and improve. Now, there exists but one such piece of
property for any man,--himself.

Hence it results that half a score of men may till the soil, hew
wood, and make shoes, not from necessity, but in consequence of an
acknowledgment of the fact that man should work, and that the more he
works the better it will be for him. It results, that half a score
of men,--or even one man, may demonstrate to people, both by his
confession and by his actions, that the terrible evil from which they
are suffering is not a law of fate, the will of God, or any
historical necessity; but that it is merely a superstition, which is
not in the least powerful or terrible, but weak and insignificant, in
which we must simply cease to believe, as in idols, in order to rid
ourselves of it, and in order to rend it like a paltry spider's web.
Men who will labor to fulfil the glad law of their existence, that is
to say, those who work in order to fulfil the law of toil, will rid
themselves of that frightful superstition of property for themselves.

If the life of a man is filled with toil, and if he knows the
delights of rest, he requires no chambers, furniture, and rich and
varied clothing; he requires less costly food; he needs no means of
locomotion, or of diversion. But the principal thing is, that the
man who regards labor as the business and the joy of his life will
not seek that relief from his labor which the labors of others might