1413: Frederic Bastiat – The Law Defends Plunder

Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal. —Frederic BastiatDownload Print Quality (3840×2010) 2.36MB  |  Normal Quality (1920×1005) 259KB
Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal. —Frederic BastiatDownload Print Quality (3840×2744) 3.30MB  |  Normal Quality (1920×1372) 311KB

Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal. —Frederic Bastiat

1292: Frederic Bastiat – The Socialists

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. —Frederic Bastiat

1156: Frederic Bastiat – The State Lives at the Expense of Everyone

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State lives at the expense of everyone. —Frederic BastiatDownload Print Quality (3840×2010) 2.31MB  |  Normal Quality (1920×1005) 184KB
Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State lives at the expense of everyone. —Frederic BastiatDownload Print Quality (3840×2744) 3.37MB  |  Normal Quality (1920×1372) 235KB

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State lives at the expense of everyone. —Frederic Bastiat

1095: Frederic Bastiat – The Law

Stock up on some libertarian ammunition for your mind.

1080: Frederic Bastiat – Plunder Becomes a Way of Life

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. —Frederic Bastiat

1005: Frederic Bastiat – Natural Tendencies of Mankind

If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of government are always good? Do they not also belong to the human race? are they made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind? —Frederic Bastiat