“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.” ShouldStatesTeachWorstMonopolyUrgent Author:Frederic Bastiat
“Nothing is more senseless than to base so many expectations on the state, that is, to assume the existence of collective wisdom and foresight after taking for granted the existence of individual imbecility and improvidence.” StatesIndividualExistenceExpectationsAssumingGrantedCollectivesForesightImbecilityCollective Wisdom Author:Frederic Bastiat
“Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.” WantStatesGovernmentForgetLibertyEconomicsLibertarianExpensesFree MarketSecond AmendmentProperty Rights Author:Frederic Bastiat
“The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.” StatesGovernmentPoliticalPoliticsLibertyEconomyDemocracyLibertarianExpensesEntity Author:Frederic Bastiat
“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.” IfsWantPersonsStatesLibertyEconomicObjectsEconomicsRaisesLibertarianGrain Book:The Law Source: The Law
“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 . . . . 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” IfsWantPersonsIdeasStatesDoneGovernmentResultsLibertyEconomicObjectsSpringEconomicsRaisesAncientLibertarianSocialismDistinctionGrainLimited GovernmentBeing DoneLibertarian PartyGovernment And Society Book:The Law Source: The Law
“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?” WorldWayDoeStatesPhilosophyHandsLawPoliticalIndividualSourceBenefitsDrawsResourcesEconomicsFlowPassingPassingsPassing Through Author:Frederic Bastiat
“Property, the right to enjoy the fruits of one's labor, the right to work, to develop, to exercise one's faculties, according to one's own understanding, without the state intervening otherwise than by its protective action; this is what is meant by liberty” StatesActionEnjoyUnderstandingLibertyExerciseLaborPropertyFruitFacultyProtectiveIntervening Author:Frederic Bastiat
“I find it hard to understand why those who demand Unitary Education by the State do not also demand a Unitary Press by the State... Either the State is infallible, in which case we could not do better than to submit to it the entire domain of intelligent thought, or it is not, in which case it is no more rational to hand over education to it than the press.” HardStatesHandsPoliticalPoliticsCasesDemandIntelligentPressesRationalSubmitDomainInfallible Author:Frederic Bastiat
“The law has been perverted, and the powers of the state have become perverted along with it. The law has not only been turned from its proper function, but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose. The law has become a tool for every kind of greed. Instead of preventing crime, the law itself is guilty of the abuses it is supposed to punish. If this is true, it is a serious matter, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it.” IfsKindHas BeensMadeMatterStatesLawPoliticalPurposePoliticsAttentionMoralCrimeSeriousDutyCitizensToolsAbuseFunctionFellowsGreedContraryGuiltyPreventingMoral Duty Author:Frederic Bastiat
“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.” PeopleMeanStatesActionLastsWealthExistenceLimitsDignityIndependenceSubstanceAnalysisProportionEnterpriseVotingSpheresWoePrivate EnterprisePersonal Dignity Author:Frederic Bastiat
“The real cost of the State is the prosperity we do not see, the jobs that don’t exist, the technologies to which we do not have access, the businesses that do not come into existence, and the bright future that is stolen from us. The State has looted us just as surely as a robber who enters our home at night and steals all that we love.” RealStatesHomeJobsNightExistenceTechnologyCostProsperityAccessStealingStolenRobbersBright Future Author:Frederic Bastiat
“If socialists mean that under extraordinary circumstances, for urgent cases, the State should set aside some resources to assist certain unfortunate people, to help them adjust to changing conditions, we will, of course, agree. This is done now; we desire that it be done better. There is however, a point on this road that must not be passed; it is the point where governmental foresight would step in to replace individual foresight and thus destroy it.” PeopleIfsShouldMeanStatesDoneHelpingDesireCertainCoursesIndividualStepsCasesConditionsCircumstancesResourcesAgreeExtraordinaryUnfortunateUrgentForesight Author:Frederic Bastiat
