Skip to content

Frédéric Bastiat on Justice

1801–1850 France

← All quotes by Frédéric Bastiat

3 quotes

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.

Economic Sophisms (1845)

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.

Justice and Fraternity (1848)

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.

The Law (1850)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Frédéric Bastiat (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.