Land can no more be the object of purchase or sale than a person. The sale and purchase of land is only a covert sale of people.
The essence of slavery is in empowering one man to obtain the labor of another without recompense. Private property in land does this as fully as chattel slavery. The slave-owner must leave to the slave enough of his earnings to enable him to live. Are there not in so-called free countries great bodies of working-men who get no more?
— Henry George
Land is nature’s solemn gift to humankind; being born gives everyone the right to own land. This right is as natural as a baby’s right to its mother’s breast.
— Marmontel
Since I was born for the earth, the earth was given me so I could take from it what I need for cultivation and planting, and I have the right to demand my share.
— Emerson
In our society a person cannot sleep without paying for the place on which he sleeps. Air, water and sunlight belong to him only on the highway. His only right, recognized by law, is to walk upon the highway until he begins swaying from exhaustion, because he cannot stop and must keep moving.
— Grant Allen
The bodies of men and women, and more so their souls, must not be bought or sold, and likewise land, water and air, because these things are necessary conditions for the maintenance of human bodies and souls.
— John Ruskin
It is impossible to take part in the sale, purchase, consolidation and management of private land without committing a great sin.
What people strive for in their lives is not to do the things they consider good, but to call as many things as possible their own.
