The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in… — Frederic Bastiat Action Copy Share Image
“And let it not be said, as it continually is, that the law, in this sense, would be atheistic, individual, and heartless,… — Frédéric Bastiat Atheistic Copy Share Image
If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“It is not because men have made laws, that personality, liberty, and property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty,… — Frédéric Bastiat Freedom Copy Share Image
“One of the strangest phenomena of our time, and one that will probably be a matter of astonishment to our decedents, is… — Frédéric Bastiat Democracy Copy Share Image
In an economy, an act, a habit, an institution, or a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a… — Frederic Bastiat Birth Copy Share Image
It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“When it is a question of taxes, gentlemen, prove their usefulness by reasons with some foundation, but not with that lamentable assertion:… — Frédéric Bastiat Taxes Copy Share Image
“Rousseau.—Although this politician, the paramount authority of the Democrats, makes the social edifice rest upon the general will, no one has so… — Frédéric Bastiat Democracy Copy Share Image
Who then would not like to see these benefits flow upon the world from the law, as from an inexhaustible source?... But… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Property, the right to enjoy the fruits of one's labor, the right to work, to develop, to exercise one's faculties, according to… — Frederic Bastiat Action Copy Share Image
We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion.… — Frederic 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
You compare the nation to a parched piece of land and the tax to a life-giving rain. So be it. But you… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“It is easy to conceive that, according to the power of the legislator, it destroys for its own profit, and in different… — Frédéric Bastiat Freedom Copy Share Image
The people who, during the election, were so wise, so moral, so perfect, now have no tendencies whatever; or if they have… — Frederic Bastiat Degradation Copy Share Image
Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
“One of the strangest phenomena of our time, and one that will probably be a matter of astonishment to our descendants, is… — Frédéric Bastiat Omnipotence Copy Share Image
“Classical conventionalism shows us everywhere, behind passive society, a hidden power, under the names of Law, or Legislator (or, by a mode… — Frédéric 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
The real cost of the State is the prosperity we do not see, the jobs that don’t exist, the technologies to which… — Frederic Bastiat Access Copy Share Image
“The law perverted! The law — and, in its wake, all the collective forces of the nation — the law, I say,… — Frédéric Bastiat Law Copy Share Image
