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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 mission of the law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even though the law may be… — Frederic 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
“I cannot possibly understand how fraternity can be legally enforced without liberty being legally destroyed...” — Frédéric 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
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
“I do not think that illegal plunder, such as theft or swindling — which the penal code defines, anticipates, and punishes —… — 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
“It is not because men have made laws, that personality, liberty, and property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty,… — Frédéric 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
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 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
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
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
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
“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
In an economy, an act, a habit, an institution, or a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else. — 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 many persons… — 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, political, or… — Frederic Bastiat Copy Share Image
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 Image
