Legal plunder has two roots: One, as we have just seen, is in human selfishness; the other is in false philanthropy. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“In fact, it is not justice which has an existence of its own, it is injustice. The one results from the absence… — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
“And because we do not ask so much at the hands of the law, because we only ask it for justice, it… — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
If philanthropy is not voluntary, it destroys liberty and justice. The law can give nothing that has not first been taken from… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Law is justice. In this proposition a simple and enduring government can be conceived. And I defy anyone to say how even… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
The law is the collective organization of the individual's right to lawful defense of his life, liberty and property. When it is… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Law is justice. And it is under the law of justice - under the reign of right; under the influence of liberty,… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
...the statement, "The purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign," is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
I believe that my theory is correct; for whatever be the question upon which I am arguing, whether it be religious, philosophical,… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
No society can exist if respect for the law does not to some extent prevail; but the surest way to have the… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“In the first place, it would efface from everybody’s conscience the distinction between justice and injustice. No society can exist unless the… — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
As proof of this statement, consider this question: Have the people ever been known to rise against the Court of Appeals, or… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defence; it is the substitution of collective for individual forces, for… — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
“Which countries contain the most peaceful, the most moral, and the happiest people? Those people are found in the countries where the… — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
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… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
Slavery, protection, and monopoly find defenders, not only in those who profit by them, but in those who suffer by them. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
There is in all of a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
I believe that my theory is correct; for whatever be the question upon which I am arguing, whether it be religious, philosophical, political, or… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a more alarming… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
“And now, after having vainly inflicted upon the social body so many systems, let them end where they ought to have begun—reject all systems,… — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share
When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share
