Explore "What is Property?" by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Paris, April 1, 1841.
Monsieur -- / Before resuming my Inquiries Into Government and Property, it is fitting, for the satisfaction of some worthy people, and also in the interest of order, that I should make to you a plain, straightforward explanation. In a much-governed State, no one would be allowed to attack the external form of the society, and the groundwork of its institutions, until he had established his right to do so -- first, by his morality; second, by his capacity; and, third, by the purity of his intentions. Anyone who, wishing to publish a treatise upon the constitution of the country, could not satisfy this threefold condition, would be obliged to procure the endorsement of a responsible patron possessing the requisite qualifications.