Liberty Quotes by Frederic Bastiat

The plans differ; the planners are all alike...

— Frederic Bastiat

The law commit legal plunder by violating liberty and property.

— Frederic Bastiat

“The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable.”

— Frédéric Bastiat

By virtue of exchange, one man's prosperity is beneficial to all others.

— Frederic Bastiat

Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism - including, of course, legal despotism?

— Frederic Bastiat

The solution of the social problem is in liberty.

— Frederic Bastiat

Liberty is an acknowledgement of faith in God and his works.

— Frederic Bastiat

“...for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.”

— Frédéric Bastiat

When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his…

— Frederic Bastiat

Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.

— Frederic Bastiat

“at whatever point of the scientific horizon I start from, I invariably come to the same thing—the solution of the social problem…

— Frédéric Bastiat

There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a…

— Frederic Bastiat

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into…

— Frederic Bastiat

What, then is law [government]? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.

— Frederic Bastiat

The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.

— Frederic Bastiat

Since the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to allow them liberty, how comes it to…

— Frederic Bastiat

We cannot doubt that self-interest is the mainspring of human nature. It must be clearly understood that this word is used here…

— Frederic Bastiat

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

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to…

— Frederic Bastiat

Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes…

— Frederic Bastiat

This question of legal plunder must be settled once and for all, and there are only three ways to settle it: (1)…

— Frederic Bastiat

...the statement, "The purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign," is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to…

— Frederic Bastiat

Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the…

— Frederic Bastiat

If you wish to prosper, let your customer prosper. When people have learned this lesson, everyone will seek his individual welfare in…

— Frederic Bastiat

If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his liberty, and his property, then it…

— Frederic Bastiat

Law is justice. And it is under the law of justice - under the reign of right; under the influence of liberty,…

— Frederic Bastiat

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every…

— Frederic Bastiat

I believe that my theory is correct; for whatever be the question upon which I am arguing, whether it be religious, philosophical,…

— Frederic Bastiat

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

But we assure the socialists that we repudiate only forced organization, not natural organization. We repudiate the forms of association that are…

— Frederic Bastiat

We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion.…

— Frederic Bastiat

“The social organs are constituted so as to enable them to develop harmoniously in the grand air of liberty. Away, then, with…

— Frederic Bastiat

“God has given to men all that is necessary for them to accomplish their destinies. He has provided a social form as…

— Frédéric Bastiat

“Which countries contain the most peaceful, the most moral, and the happiest people? Those people are found in the countries where the…

— Frédéric Bastiat

Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to…

— Frederic Bastiat

The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder.

— Frederic Bastiat

“I cannot possibly understand how fraternity can be legally enforced without liberty being legally destroyed...”

— Frédéric Bastiat

In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does…

— Frederic Bastiat

If philanthropy is not voluntary, it destroys liberty and justice. The law can give nothing that has not first been taken from…

— Frederic Bastiat

And what is liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of…

— Frederic Bastiat