Frédéric Bastiat Quotes
Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state educ . . . Read more

-Frédéric Bastiat
The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.

-Frédéric Bastiat
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If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves . . . Read more

-Frédéric Bastiat
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

-Frédéric Bastiat
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But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do . . . Read more

-Frédéric Bastiat
Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough.

-Frédéric Bastiat
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Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone.

-Frédéric Bastiat
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When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.

-Frédéric Bastiat
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