"If historical experience could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization."
— Ludwig von Mises
If Historical Experience Could Teach Us
If historical experience could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.
About this quote
From Human Action (1949). Mises was defending private property not merely as a legal convention but as the institutional precondition for economic calculation, capital accumulation, and peaceful social cooperation. He argued that every civilization that had achieved durable prosperity had done so on the foundation of private property rights, and that movements to abolish those rights were movements against civilization itself.
Source
Human Action (1949)