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