Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

Locke makes this claim in his Second Treatise of Government (published anonymously in 1689, dated 1690), in the course of arguing against absolute monarchy and for natural rights. In the chapter on property, he seeks to explain how private ownership can arise legitimately in a world originally held “in common.” His solution is that individuals own themselves and therefore own their labor; when a person “mixes” that labor with natural resources, the resulting product can become their property, within moral limits (notably the proviso against waste and the requirement to leave “enough and as good” for others). The line anchors Locke’s broader political case for consent and limited government.

The sentence asserts a foundational principle of self-ownership: each person has an exclusive right over their own body and capacities. For Locke, this is not merely a psychological claim about individuality but a moral-juridical one that grounds rights against coercion. It underwrites his theory of property (labor creates entitlement) and his politics (legitimate authority must respect natural rights and rest on consent). The idea has had a long afterlife, shaping liberal arguments about personal liberty, bodily integrity, and limits on state power, while also provoking debate about whether “property” is the best metaphor for personhood and how self-ownership relates to obligations to others.

“Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his.”

“Every man has a property in his own person; this nobody has any right to but himself.”