Frederic Bastiat
Frederic Bastiat
Claude-Frédéric Bastiatwas a French economist and author who was a prominent member of the French Liberal School. He developed the economic concept of opportunity cost, and introduced the Parable of the Broken Window. He was also a Freemason, and member of the French National Assembly...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth30 June 1801
CountryFrance
Frederic Bastiat quotes about
taken law justice
If philanthropy is not voluntary, it destroys liberty and justice. The law can give nothing that has not first been taken from its owner.
liberty want libertarian
We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.
government political liberty
The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
law two greed
The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes-naked greed and misconceived philanthropy.
liberty destruction despotism
Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism - including, of course, legal despotism?
should-have trying liberty
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
law liberty alternatives
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.
would-be reform tasks
Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough.
strong believe law
There is in all of a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are "just" because the law makes them so.
hands law benefits
Who then would not like to see these benefits flow upon the world from the law, as from an inexhaustible source?... But is it possible?... Whence does the State draw those resources that it is urged to dispense by way of benefits to individuals? Is it not from the individuals themselves? How, then, can these resources be increased by passing through the hands of a parasitic and voracious intermediary?
philosophy political economics
Often the masses are plundered and do not know it.
long liberty use
In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so?
army borders crosses
If goods don't cross borders, armies will.
thinking judging humanity
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.