Quotessence
Home / Books / The Law

The Law

Book by Frederic Bastiat · 19 quotes · Liberty, Law, Plunder

Filter quotes by topic

AllLibertyLawPlunderPersonsPropertyLaborEconomicEconomicsGovernmentDoeInjusticeJusticeLibertarianNaturalPoliticsEconomyFacultyIfsUseCitizens

The Law Quotes

“Which countries contain the most peaceful, the most moral, and the happiest people? Those people are found in the countries where the law least interferes with private affairs; where the government is least felt; where the individual has the greatest scope, and free opinion the greatest influence; where the administrative powers are fewest and simplest; where taxes are lightest and most nearly equal”

PeopleCountryGovernmentLawFoundIndividualFeltMoralOpinionInfluenceTaxesEqualAffairPeacefulInterfereSimplestScopeAdministrativeFree Opinion
Book:The Law
Create image

“Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation. This is the seductive lure of socialism. And I repeat: these two uses of the law are in direct contradiction to each other.”

ShouldTwoSelfUseLawNationsMoralCitizensMoralityIntellectualSelf ImprovementDirectImprovementSocialismWelfareSufficientOur TimeRepeatsEncountersGuaranteesContradictionFacultySeductiveFallacyLure
Book:The Law
Create image

“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.”

MenFirstsMadeFactsLawPoliticsLibertyEconomyPropertyLibertarianContraryLiberalismFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyPrivate PropertyProperty RightsEconomic FreedomFounding Fathers DemocracyVoting Founding FathersProperty Ownership
Book:The Law
Create image

“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 without committing a crime.”

IfsGivingPersonsDoeGovernmentLawLibertyEconomicCrimeCitizensBenefitsEconomicsLibertarianExpensesFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsWelfare StatePlunderEconomic FreedomLaw CourtsLegal Rights
Book:The Law
Create image

“...the statement, "The purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign," is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to be stated that the purpose of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is injustice, instead of justice, that has an existence of its own. Justice is achieved only when injustice is absent.”

FactsLawPurposeCausesJusticeExistenceLibertyEconomicOughtEconomicsInjusticeStatementsAccurateReignAbsent
Book:The Law
Create image

“It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property, since they pre-exist, and his work is only to secure them from injury. It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our sentiments, our works, our exchanges, our gifts, our enjoyments. Its mission is to prevent the rights of one from interfering with those of another, in any one of these things.”

PersonsIdeasLawLibertyRightsEconomicConscienceEconomicsAbsolutesPropertyMissionsSecureEnjoymentInjurySentimentsInterfereLegislatorsAbsolute Power
Book:The Law
Create image

“Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter, by peaceful or revolutionary means, into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.”

MenTryingMayMeanTwoDifferentLawPoliticalPurposeWishClassShareDegreesEnlightenmentVictimInjusticeProfitPeacefulRevolutionaryOrganizedRebelProposePolitical PowerPlunder
Book:The Law
Create image

“In fact, if law were restricted to protecting all persons, all liberties, and all properties; if law were nothing more than the organized combination of the individual's right to self-defense; if law were the obstacle, the check, the punisher of all oppression and plunder - is it likely that we citizens would then argue much about the extent of the franchise?”

IfsPersonsSelfFactsLawIndividualLibertyCitizensPropertyObstaclesDefenseLibertarianArguingChecksOppressionCombinationOrganizedSelf DefensePlunderPunisher
Book:The Law
Create image