Quotes by Frederic Bastiat

About Frederic Bastiat:

Claude Frédéric Bastiat was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost, and for introducing the Parable of the Broken Window or the "Glazier's fallacy". His ideas have provided a basis for Libertarianism and the Austrian School.
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When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a...

Frederic Bastiat

One of the strangest phenomena of our time, and one that will probably be a matter of astonishment to our decedents, is that doctrine which is founded upon this triple hypothesis: the radical passiveness of mankind, -the omnipotence of the law, -the ...

Frederic Bastiat

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.

Frederic Bastiat

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 ...

Frederic Bastiat

There is in all of us a strong disposition to regard what is lawful as legitimate, so much so that many falsely derive all justice from law. It is sufficient, then, for the law to order and sanction plunder, that it may appear to many consciences jus...

Frederic Bastiat

I cannot possibly understand how fraternity can be legally enforced without liberty being legally destroyed...

Frederic Bastiat

Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed...

Frederic Bastiat

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his . He will claim that the state is obligated to protected and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus a...

Frederic Bastiat

I do not think that illegal plunder, such as theft or swindling — which the penal code defines, anticipates, and punishes — can be called socialism. It is not this kind of plunder that systematically threatens the foundations of society. Anyway, ...

Frederic Bastiat

In the first place, it would efface from everybody’s conscience the distinction between justice and injustice. No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a cer- tain degree, but the safest way to make them respected is to make them respe...

Frederic Bastiat

. . . for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.

Frederic Bastiat

We disapprove of state education. Than the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Than the socialists say that we don't want an religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Than they say that w...

Frederic Bastiat

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.

Frederic Bastiat

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?

Frederic Bastiat

And what is liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties - liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, or labor, or trade?

Frederic Bastiat

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

Frederic Bastiat

Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.

Frederic 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.

Frederic Bastiat

Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism - including, of course, legal despotism?

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.

Frederic Bastiat

Author Bio

  • NameFrederic Bastiat
  • DescriptionFrench classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly
  • AliasesClaude Frédéric Bastiat
  • BornJune 30, 1801
  • DiedDecember 24, 1850
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Economist; Author; Politician