Thank you Nicholas. My French is just barely 
adequate to discern the absolute opposition, for 
Proudhon, between property and society. However, 
no single quote can be dispositive of the issue, 
for three reasons: One, no sufficiently complex 
thinker is ever completely self-consistent 
(that's what makes thinking interesting); two, 
thinking evolves (at least for those who are 
still thinking), and; three, people use the same 
word in different senses in different contexts. 
Property, in the sense of the new-fangled 
Napoleonic Code or the Statute of Frauds would 
certainly be, in Proudhon's view, repugnant to 
society. But property in the sense of occupation 
and use would indeed represent freedom for J. P. 
But I don't know if J. P. ever uses the term 
property in this latter sense. At least, I can 
find no example of where he does.

John C. M?daille