“The social organs are constituted so as to enable
them to develop harmoniously in the grand air of
liberty. Away, then, with quacks and organizers!
Away with their rings, and their chains, and their
hooks, and their pincers! Away with their artificial
methods! Away with their social laboratories, their
governmental whims, their centralization, their
tariffs, their universities, their State religions,
their inflationary or monopolizing banks, their
limitations, their restrictions, their
moralizations, and their equalization by taxation!
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, and try of
liberty — liberty, which is an act of faith in God
and in His work”
― Frédéric Bastiat
― Frédéric Bastiat
“God has given to men all that is necessary for them
to accomplish their destinies. He has provided a
social form as well as a human form. And these
social organs of humans are so constituted that they
will develop themselves harmoniously in the clean
air of liberty. Away, then, with the quacks and
organizers! Away with their rings, chains, hooks and
pincers! Away with their artificial systems! Away
with the whims of governmental administrators, their
socialized projects, their centralization, their
tariffs, their government schools, their state
religions, their free credit, their bank monopolies,
their regulations, their restrictions, their
equalization by taxation, and their pious
moralizations!
And, now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
And, now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“When law and morality contradict each other, the
citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing
his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“The law perverted! The law — and, in its wake, all
the collective forces of the nation — the law, I
say, not only diverted from its proper direction,
but made to pursue one entirely contrary! The law
become the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of
being its check! The law guilty of that very
iniquity which it was its mission to punish! Truly,
this is a serious fact, if it exists, and one to
which I feel bound to call the attention of my
fellow citizens.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“I do not think that illegal plunder, such as theft
or swindling — which the penal code defines,
anticipates, and punishes — can be called socialism.
It is not this kind of plunder that systematically
threatens the foundations of society. Anyway, the
war against this kind of plunder has not waited for
the command of these gentlemen. The war against
illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning
of the world. Long before the Revolution of February
1848 — long before the appearance even of socialism
itself — France had provided police, judges,
gendarmes, prisons, dungeons, and scaffolds for the
purpose of fighting illegal plunder. The law itself
conducts this war, and it is my wish and opinion
that the law should always maintain this attitude
toward plunder.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“One of the strangest phenomena of our time, and one
that will probably be a matter of astonishment to
our descendants, is the doctrine which is founded
upon this triple hypothesis: the radical passiveness
of mankind,— the omnipotence of the law,—the
infallibility of the legislator: this is the sacred
symbol of the party that proclaims itself
exclusively democratic.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“We hold from God the gift which, as far as we are
concerned, contains all others, Life — physical,
intellectual, and moral life.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“The most urgent necessity is, not that the State
should teach, but that it should allow education.
All monopolies are detestable, but the worst of all
is the monopoly of education.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, What Is Money?
― Frédéric Bastiat, What Is Money?
“It is not because men have made laws, that
personality, liberty, and property exist. On the
contrary, it is because personality, liberty, and
property exist beforehand, that men make laws. What,
then, is law? As I have said elsewhere, it is the
collective organization of the individual right to
lawful defense.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“For, under such an administration, every one would
feel that he possessed all the fullness, as well as
all the responsibility of his existence. So long as
personal safety was ensured, so long as labor was
free, and the fruits of labor secured against all
unjust attacks, no one would have any difficulties
to contend with in the State. When prosperous, we
should not, it is true, have to thank the State for
our success; but when unfortunate, we should no more
think of taxing it with our disasters, than our
peasants think of attributing to it the arrival of
hail or of frost. We should know it only by the
inestimable blessing of Safety.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“When a portion of wealth is transferred from the
person who owns it -- without his consent and
without compensation, and whether by force or by
fraud -- to anyone who does not own it, then I say
that property is violated; that an act of plunder is
committed.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“In the first place, it would efface from
everybody’s
conscience the distinction between justice and injustice.
No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree,
but the safest way to make them respected is
to make them respectable. When law and morality are in
contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in
the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of
losing his respect for the law—two evils of equal magni-
tude, between which it would be difficult to choose.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
conscience the distinction between justice and injustice.
No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree,
but the safest way to make them respected is
to make them respectable. When law and morality are in
contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in
the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of
losing his respect for the law—two evils of equal magni-
tude, between which it would be difficult to choose.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
“Well, I ask the impartial reader, is it not
childishness, and more than that, dangerous
childishness? Is it not inevitable that we shall
have revolution after revolution, if there is a
determination never to stop till this contradiction
is realized: -"To give nothing to government and to
receive much from it"?”
― Frédéric Bastiat, Government
― Frédéric Bastiat, Government
“Since no individual acting separately can lawfully
use force to destroy the rights of others, does it
not logically follow that the same principle also
applies to the common force that is nothing more
than the organized combination of the individual
forces?”
― Frédéric Bastiat
― Frédéric Bastiat