The law commit legal plunder by violating liberty and property. Frederic Bastiat More Quotes by Frederic Bastiat More Quotes From Frederic Bastiat The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended. Frederic Bastiat worstlibertycauses If socialists mean that under extraordinary circumstances, for urgent cases, the State should set aside some resources to assist certain unfortunate people, to help them adjust to changing conditions, we will, of course, agree. This is done now; we desire that it be done better. There is however, a point on this road that must not be passed; it is the point where governmental foresight would step in to replace individual foresight and thus destroy it. Frederic Bastiat desiremeanpeople In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so? Frederic Bastiat libertydoelong There is in all of a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are "just" because the law makes them so. Frederic Bastiat stronglawbelieve Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. Frederic Bastiat economiceconomyliberty Trade barriers constitute isolation; isolation gives rise to hatred, hatred to war, and war to invasion. Frederic Bastiat hatredgivingwar [Socialists claim] that we reject fraternity, solidarity, organization, and association; and they brand us with the name of individualists. We can assure them that what we repudiate is not natural organization, but forced organization. It is not free association, but the forms of association that they would impose upon us. It is not spontaneous fraternity, but legal fraternity. It is not providential solidarity, but artificial solidarity, which is only an unjust displacement of responsibility. Socialism . . . confounds Government and society. Frederic Bastiat governmentresponsibilitynames If goods don't cross borders, armies will. Frederic Bastiat bordersarmycrosses It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property. The existence of persons and property preceded the existence of the legislator, and his function is only to guarantee their safety. Frederic Bastiat functionsafetyguarantees It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder. Frederic Bastiat governmentevillaw Treat all economic questions from the viewpoint of the consumer, for the interests of the consumer are the interests of the human race. Frederic Bastiat viewpointspoliticalrace The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder. Frederic Bastiat lawdoegiving The law has been perverted, and the powers of the state have become perverted along with it. The law has not only been turned from its proper function, but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose. The law has become a tool for every kind of greed. Instead of preventing crime, the law itself is guilty of the abuses it is supposed to punish. If this is true, it is a serious matter, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it. Frederic Bastiat greedpoliticallaw I find it hard to understand why those who demand Unitary Education by the State do not also demand a Unitary Press by the State... Either the State is infallible, in which case we could not do better than to submit to it the entire domain of intelligent thought, or it is not, in which case it is no more rational to hand over education to it than the press. Frederic Bastiat politicalintelligenthands Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough. Frederic Bastiat judginghumanitythinking The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish. Frederic Bastiat votingmeanpeople ...the statement, "The purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign," is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to be stated that the purpose of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is injustice, instead of justice, that has an existence of its own. Justice is achieved only when injustice is absent. Frederic Bastiat libertylawjustice If you wish to prosper, let your customer prosper. When people have learned this lesson, everyone will seek his individual welfare in the general welfare. Then jealousies between man and man, city and city, province and province, nation and nation, will no longer trouble the world. Frederic Bastiat citiesmenpeople And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works Frederic Bastiat libertyshould-havetrying Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. Frederic Bastiat governmenthumorinspirational
