Frederic Bastiat Quotes - Page 2

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• The mission of the law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even though the law may be acting in a philanthropic spirit. Its purpose is to protect persons and property.... If you exceed this proper limit -- if you attempt to make the law religious, fraternal, equalizing, philanthropic, industrial, or artistic -- you will then be lost in uncharted territory, in vagueness and uncertainty, in a forced utopia or, even worse, in a multitude of utopias, each striving to seize the law and impose it on you.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Religious, Law, Acting

  27 Copy quote

• There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Differences, Economist, Accounts

  13 Copy quote

• The law is the collective organization of the individual's right to lawful defense of his life, liberty and property. When it is used for anything else, no matter how noble the cause, it becomes perverted and justice is weakened. Thus, the law has become perverted by stupid greed and false philanthropy.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Stupid, Law, Organization

  15 Copy quote

• The mission of law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even thought the law may be acting in a philanthropic spirit. Its mission is to protect property.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Law, Acting, May

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Strong, Believe, Law

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.10, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

  28 Copy quote

• Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Liberty, Economic, Economy

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.6, Cosimo, Inc.

  35 Copy quote

• The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Evil, Liberty, Libertarian

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.27, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

  18 Copy quote

• 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

  Safety, Guarantees, Function

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.64, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

  19 Copy quote

• 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

  Intelligent, Hands, Political

  14 Copy quote

• Taking Five and Returning Four is not Giving

  Frederic Bastiat

  Giving, Four, Five

  14 Copy quote

• There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a more alarming situation.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Thinking, People, Liberty

  54 Copy quote

• And this is what has taken place. The delusion of the day is to enrich all classes at the expense of each other; it is to generalize plunder under pretense of organizing it.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Taken, Class, Plunder

  Frederic Bastiat (2017). “The Law”, p.15, Lulu.com

  19 Copy quote

• Legal plunder has two roots: One, as we have just seen, is in human selfishness; the other is in false philanthropy.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Two, Roots, Justice

  12 Copy quote

• Countries which enjoy the highest level of peace, happiness and prosperity are the ones where the law least interfered with private affairs.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Country, Law, Levels

  7 Copy quote

• If goods don't cross borders, armies will.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Army, Borders, Crosses

  27 Copy quote

• Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?

  Frederic Bastiat

  Rights, Acting, Principles

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.6, Cosimo, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• People are beginning to realize that the apparatus of government is costly. But what they do not know is that the burden falls inevitably on them.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Fall, Government, People

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Long, Liberty, Doe

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.41, Cosimo, Inc.

  51 Copy quote

• They would be the shepherds over us, their sheep. Certainly such an arrangement presupposes that they are naturally superior to the rest of us. And certainly we are fully justified in demanding from the legislators and organizers proof of this natural superiority.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Sheep, Shepherds, Would Be

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.60, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

  4 Copy quote

• The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Liberty, Causes, Worst

  "Economic sophisms". Book by Frederic Bastiat, 1845.

  72 Copy quote

• Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Inspirational, Humor, Government

  19 Copy quote

• It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property, since they pre-exist, and his work is only to secure them from injury. It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our sentiments, our works, our exchanges, our gifts, our enjoyments. Its mission is to prevent the rights of one from interfering with those of another, in any one of these things.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Rights, Law, Ideas

  Frederic Bastiat (2017). “The Law”, p.36, Lulu.com

  15 Copy quote

• Often the masses are plundered and do not know it.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Philosophy, Political, Economics

  Frederic Bastiat (2014). “Sophisms of the Protectionists”, p.159, The Floating Press

  27 Copy quote

• 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

  Race, Political, Viewpoints

  Frederic Bastiat (2001). “Economic Fallacies”, p.61, Simon Publications LLC

  11 Copy quote

• Society is composed of men, and every man is a FREE agent. Since man is free, he can choose; since he can choose, he can err; since he can err, he can suffer. I go further: He must err and he must suffer; for his starting point is ignorance, and in his ignorance he sees before him an infinite number of unknown roads, all of which save one lead to error.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Ignorance, Men, Numbers

  12 Copy quote

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