Law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Property does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable.” — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
The mission of law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even thought the law may be acting… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
What, then is law [government]? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes-naked greed and misconceived philanthropy. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“What, then, is law? As I have said elsewhere, it is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defence.” — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
“I cannot possibly understand how fraternity can be legally enforced without liberty being legally destroyed...” — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
It is indeed a singular thing that people wish to pass laws to nullify the disagreeable consequences that the law of responsibility… — 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
As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose--that it may violate property instead of… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his… — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
Try to imagine a system of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
In fact, if law were restricted to protecting all persons, all liberties, and all properties; if law were nothing more than the… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
There is in all of a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that… — 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
“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
Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should guarantee to every… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property, since they pre-exist, and his work is… — Frederic 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 person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights . He will claim that the state is… — Frédéric 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
Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain - and since labor is pain in itself - it follows that men… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
The law has been perverted, and the powers of the state have become perverted along with it. The law has not only… — Frederic 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
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
“Legal plunder has two roots: one of them, as we have already seen, is in human egotism; the other is in false… — Frédéric 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
Either fraternity is spontaneous, or it does not exist. To decree it is to annihilate it. The law can indeed force men… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
A lawyer's primer: If you don't have the law, you argue the facts; if you don't have the facts, you argue the… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes—bare egotism and false philanthropy.” — Frédéric Bastiat Copy Share Image
Countries which enjoy the highest level of peace, happiness and prosperity are the ones where the law least interfered with private affairs. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes… — Frederic 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… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to… — 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
![“What, then is law [government]? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.” quote by Frederic Bastiat](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/f60/frederic-bastiat-2151_collectives_what-then-is-law-government-it-is-the-co_2203702.png)
