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It is easier to show the disorder that must accompany reform than the order that should follow it.

Frederic Bastiat

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Frederic Bastiat
Age: 49 †
Born: 1801
Born: June 30
Died: 1850
Died: December 24
Economist
Essayist
Magistrate
Philosopher
Politician
Baiona
Claude Frédéric Bastiat
Must
Disorder
Reform
Follow
Easier
Society
Show
Shows
Order
Accompany

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Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.
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Man acquires wealth in proportion as he puts his labor to better account.
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The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder.
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The profit of the one is the profit of the other.
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We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life - physical, intellectual, and moral life.
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Slavery, protection, and monopoly find defenders, not only in those who profit by them, but in those who suffer by them.
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The law is the collective organization of the individual's right to lawful defense of his life, liberty and property. When it is used for anything else, no matter how noble the cause, it becomes perverted and justice is weakened. Thus, the law has become perverted by stupid greed and false philanthropy.
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The solution of the social problem is in liberty.
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Property does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property.
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There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a more alarming situation.
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Either fraternity is spontaneous, or it does not exist. To decree it is to annihilate it. The law can indeed force men to remain just in vain would it try to force them to be self-sacrificing.
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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 nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.
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When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.
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The law commit legal plunder by violating liberty and property.
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The impulses of my heart are the voice of Nature, which is never mistaken. The institutions that stand in my way are man-made and are only arbitrary conventions to which I have never given my consent. In trampling these institutions underfoot, I shall have the double pleasure of satisfying my inclinations and of believing myself a hero
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It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property. The existence of persons and property preceded the existence of the legislator, and his function is only to guarantee their safety.
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There is not a tool, an implement, or a machine that has not resulted in a decrease in the contribution of human labor. Labor is not made permanently idle [though] when replaced in one special category... it turns its attack against other obstacles on the main road to progress.
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There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.
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Taking Five and Returning Four is not Giving
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Liberty is an acknowledgement of faith in God and his works.
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