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The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavours to live at the expense of everyone else.

— Frédéric Bastiat The State in Journal des débats (1848)

L'État c'est la grande fiction à travers laquelle tout le monde s'efforce de vivre aux dépens de tout le monde.

Original text (French)

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More quotes by Frédéric Bastiat

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)

This is done now; we desire that it be done better.

Justice and Fraternity (1848)

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

Do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?

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Competition is merely the absence of oppression.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Frédéric Bastiat (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.