John Locke Quote

"[E]very Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his Hands, we may say, are properly his. The great and chief end therefore, of Mens uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves under Government, is the Preservation of their Property."

by:	John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist. Considered the ideological progenitor of the American Revolution and who, by far, was the most often non-biblical writer quoted by the Founding Fathers of the USA.
Date:	1690
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Categories:	Government, Labor, Preservation, Property, Protection, Responsibility, Rights, Service, Wisdom, Body
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This a quotation from Locke's Second Treatise. There are two problems here: 1) The text is not an exact reproduction of the original (see below) 2) It misses out the crucial caveat in the last phrase which is a loophole for Statists. “Though the Earth and all inferior Creatures be common to all men, yet every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body and the Work of his Hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever, then, he removes out of the state that Nature hath provided and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being by him removed from the common state Nature placed it in, it hath by the labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other Men. For this Labour being the unquestionable Property of the Labourer, no Man but he can have a right to what is once joined to, at least where there is enough, and as good left in common for others.”  -- Jack, Brussels, Belgium
We are now the opposite of this quote. We have no right to the fruits of our own labor, no right to property, and are considered to be inventory by the IRS.  -- J Carlton, Calgary
Jack, the problems you speak of are, in fact, problems for the statists. The state of Nature provides a common place for all to exist (earth). Once the farmer has mixed his personal labors to that of the common (earth), placing seed in the ground and then harvesting it, it is his personal property. The Constitution is a document that was / is not law but rather, a limiting outline that gave authority (a realm at law - to a defined set of representatives) to a set certain realm of acts. The individual sovereign, united with other sovereigns was /were excluded specifically, as was in harmony with Locke's above quote and the law of nature and of Nature's God. When ever a representative would offer an amendment to said Constitution that would address the individual sovereign (by way of example: the 16th Amendment), he did so contrary to the laws of nature and by violating his oath; making any such amendment void ab initio. Only by the ignorance and apathy of ignorant helots, serfs, and slaves and the power of a foreign statist theocracy could such a heinous violation occur.  -- Mike, Norwalk
The IRS, the gestapo collection goons of the Treasury Department.  -- jim k, Austin,Tx
Jack, thank you for providing the complete quote - Mike you are a little misguided on what is called community property; if you sow a seed it belongs to the community - the Indians knew this, that is why they didn't own land, it belonged to nature and its inhabitants. God has nothing to do with the rights and nature of man and his labors - and this is where you and I differ greatly with our thinking and personal opinions.  -- RBESRQ
RBESRQ...If I sow a seed, the fruit of it belongs to me and I am thankful to God, not the community and not the government, for providing the soil, the knowledge, and the strength necessary for the seed to be sown. You say that God has nothing to do with the rights and nature of man. If these rights do not come from the Almighty, where do they come from? Are they an invention of mankind? Do we receive our rights from a piece of paper written by dead men? Who is to decide what is right and wrong if it is not the Great Governor Himself? Is nature anything more than the craftmanship of the Carpenter? You see, RBESRQ, God has everything to do with everything. Anything that is contrary to His Law is not a right, its a crime.  -- Publius
As long as man continues to keep his head where the sun does not shine, he will continue to lose (all of) his Rights. Unless man awakens and realizes that security is a poor substitute for liberty and freedom, he will sink into the depths of subjugation and experience years, if not more, of submission to (his) government! Great to have some one with a good eye and mind as Jack has exhibited above.  -- d daxx, michigan

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