William James Quote - Liberty Quotes Blog

"The instinct of ownership is fundamental in man's nature."

by:	William James (1842-1910) American psychologist, philosopher, medical doctor, author, 'The father of modern Psychology'
Date:	1902
Source:	The Variety of Religious Experience, 1902
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Categories:	Nature, Property, Rights
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Reader comments about this quote:

might as well operate our society by people's fundamental instincts. I have never understood why communists cant accept that people will always act in their self interest and that society is better off harnessing that drive rather than trying to smother it. -- John Pettitt, va
The first property you ever own is your own body, your vehicle for life. You have a natural right to defend it so it follows that you have a right to defend all of your property. The accumulation of which is, our greatest motivation to produce and achieve. For our own good and for our own security. Nothing could be more natural or moral and by doing so we "must" contribute to the society in which we live. And we are the contibutors as opposed to the communist parasites who wish to "steal" for the greater good. -- J Carlton, Calgary
That is a truth that describes one tenet of man being an individual sovereign and free - that is why the statist theocracy infesting this land does not even allow the conceptual mention of a perfected allodial anything (absolute ownership without threat - not from taxes, debt, legal pursuits, etc.) Title is not ownership, even though its touted as such. Title is only a limited claim on possession. -- Mike, Norwalk
What do we own anymore actually? Not even our bodies for to do anything we are watched or taxed and now we have gov health care...we are moving in the direction of international collectivism...name something you have in your home if you have one that didn't require permission of the state to get there (oops, the gas you used to transport it was taxed). When you think in those terms-nothing is yours freely... -- Abigail, Newport
All great quotes today. They should all be taken with the knowledge that they do not just apply to the ME or I but to the WE and the US. It has been said that the entire population of the world could live in Texas and each person could live on 1 acre of land. There would be no room however for roads, common areas etcetera. Just an absurd example of where we would be without public places, common ownership etcetera. -- Waffler, Smith
Right, Waffler. The unthinking must feel that roads, police protection, insurance, parks, schooling, civilized neighbors, the arts, laws and all the other supreme benefits our age enjoys came from the clouds or some magician in the sky. No, they came from the magnificent gifts of people who were able to contribute through TAXES paid by the millions who preceded us and now by the middle and lower classes, sadly and criminally, not by the one to five percent at the top. -- dick, fort worth 1
dick, you have no idea where your tax money really goes do you? It goes to pay the "interest" and the interest alone on loans taken from the Federal Reserve by the Government. In other words our tax dollar is being used to enrich foreign bankers through a system that allows free and unnaccountable spending by the government and we get the bill. And to add insult to injury, take into account that the money being borrowed is nothing more than paper or digits in a computer that are created out of thin air. It's a Ponzi scheme and it is Criminal. -- J Carlton, Calgary 1
The collectivist mindset is that everything is everyone's -- groupthink is a disease. My body is my property, but the collectivists would have you believe that a group deserves more rights than a person -- this is the fatal tendency of collectivism. The collectivists actually don't want individuals to act upon their own initiative because in fact there are those collectivists who envision themselves above the rest and should therefore 'lead' and thus control the group in the hypocritical belief that the 'needs' of the many outweigh the rights of the individual -- in the process giving an individual the power to dictate to the rest. That is why they fear individualism -- their argument is always that the individual will tell others what to do, when in fact that is the tendency of collectivism. Collectivists believe everything is theirs -- especially the stuff that isn't! -- E Archer, NYC
Waffler, Archer was exactly spot on when he identified your collectivist disease as cognitive dissonance. Individuals have rights. Multiples of individuals have abilities. They are no way even close to the same, no matter how you try and distort the nomenclature. Individuals can organize however they wish (unions, churches, clubs, government, etc.). Each and every, any and all individual rights stay intact with the individual when relationships with another (individual or multiple) are entered into. The de facto statist theocracy that infests this land allows no ownership (individually or in common), only its own design. For the collectivist dick, de jure governments within the totality of States united have no rights but, as employees of individual sovereigns, they / it have duties only (hired because they have the ability to expand individual right). Your false flag boogie man doesn't exist but your rant shows symptoms of that cognitive dissonance disease - collectivism. Roads are not owned by anyone while freely and willingly maintained by the users thereof. Police (thugs, revenuers, the despot's henchmen, etc.) as presently infest this land are a result of foreign malefactors enforcing their will (not law) due to a lack of individual responsibility display. -- Mike, Norwalk 1

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