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
Property does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
The mind never fully accepts any convictions that it does not owe to its own efforts. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor. — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that 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
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
But we assure the socialists that we repudiate only forced organization, not natural organization. We repudiate the forms of association that are… — 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
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
All you have to do, is to see whether the law takes from some what belongs to them in order to give… — Frederic Bastiat 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
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 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
