Quotes from The Law — Frédéric Bastiat
1801–1850 France
← All quotes by Frédéric Bastiat
6 quotes
Do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?
The Law (1850)
When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.
The Law (1850)
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)
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.
The Law (1850)
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 these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?
The Law (1850)
No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate).
The Law (1850)