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Frederic Bastiat




Books by This Author

The Law The Classic Blueprint for a Just Society by Frederic Bastiat Originally published in 1850, this timeless book explains the fundamental principles involved in determining the proper scope of government. Written at the time of the Communist Revolutions of 1848, it explains the socialist fallacies deceiving French citizens at the time and that are still deceivin... View Book Details

Quotes by This Author

	“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. 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 [for the protection of them] in the first place.” (Frederic Bastiat, The Law, p. 5-6.)

	“Mr. de Saint-Cricq would extend his philanthropy only to some of the industrial groups; he would demand that the law control the consumers to benefit the producers. “Mr. Considerant would sponsor the cause of the labor groups; he would use the law to secure for them a guaranteed minimum of clothing, housing, and all other necessities of life. “Mr. Louis Blanc would say—and with reason—that these minimum guarantees are merely the beginning of complete fraternity; he would say that the law should give tools of production and free education to all working people. “Another person would observe that this arrangement would still leave room for inequality; he would claim that the law should give to everyone—even in the most inaccessible hamlet—luxury, literature, and art. “All of these proposals are the high road to communism; legislation will then be—in fact, it already is—the battlefield for the fantasies and greed of everyone.” (Frederic Bastiat, The Law, p. 70. 1850.)

	“Mr. de Lamartine once wrote to me thusly: ‘Your doctrine is only half of my program. You have stopped at liberty; I go on to fraternity.’ I answered him: ‘The second half of your program will destroy the first.’” (Frederic Bastiat, Fraternity refers to the slogan of the French Revolution “Liberte, Egalite, Faternite” or Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood which in part exploited the masses on to revolution seeking to enforce all three by government decree. The Law, p. 22. 1850.)