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About this quote

What does it mean?
Without secure property rights, freedom cannot be maintained.
In plain terms
Freedom needs protected property.
What can you take from it?
Protect property to preserve liberty.

Where it applies

  • drafting constitutions
  • property law reforms

Putting it to work

  • enforcing property laws
  • educating owners

Questions to consider

  • Is property the foundation of liberty?
  • Can liberty exist without ownership?

Another view

Some argue liberty can exist without strict property security.

More from John Adams

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  2. Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at th…

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  3. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

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