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
giving four five
Taking Five and Returning Four is not Giving
business wish ifs
If you wish to prosper, let your customer prosper.
mean people voting
The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish.
government bonus firsts
Let us first of all frugality in government-peace and freedom we will have as a bonus.
liberty libertarian economic
The plans differ; the planners are all alike...
inspirational humor government
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
law giving doe
The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder.
men liberty prosperity
By virtue of exchange, one man's prosperity is beneficial to all others.
differences economist accounts
There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.
eye evil firsts
Trade protection accumulates upon a single point the good which it effects, while the evil inflicted is infused throughout the mass. The one strikes the eye at a first glance, while the other becomes perceptible only to close investigation.
liberty faith-in-god acknowledgement
Liberty is an acknowledgement of faith in God and his works.
sacrifice men law
Either fraternity is spontaneous, or it does not exist. To decree it is to annihilate it. The law can indeed force men to remain just; in vain would it would try to force them to be self-sacrificing.
order justice liberty
No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate).
men leader political
Life, faculties, production-in other words, individuality, liberty, property-this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.