Life Liberty and Property

I was looking for quotes from respected individuals regarding the notion of private property.  The ones listed here came from an internet site called Search Quotes.  Many of these ideas where shared in communications by the founders of our nation, studies and consideration by the best minds as they defined as best they could the enduring definitions of Life, Liberty and Property (also referred to as the Pursuit of Happiness).

“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”― Frederic Bastiat, The Law

“Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.”  --Frederic Bastiat

 “Liberty, then, is the sovereignty of the individual, and never shall man know liberty until each and every individual is acknowledged to be the only legitimate sovereign of his or her person, time, and property, each living and acting at his own cost.” --Josiah Warren

“All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws” –Voltaire

“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.”  --Samuel Adams

“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.”  --John Adams

“In fact, a fundamental interdependence exists between the personal right to liberty and the personal right to property.”  –Potter Stewart

This last one might become my favorite quote as pertains to government…

“Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”  --Gilbert K Chesterton