The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish.
Frederic BastiatPeople are beginning to realize that the apparatus of government is costly. But what they do not know is that the burden falls inevitably on them.
Frederic BastiatIf philanthropy is not voluntary, it destroys liberty and justice. The law can give nothing that has not first been taken from its owner.
Frederic BastiatTreat all economic questions from the viewpoint of the consumer, for the interests of the consumer are the interests of the human race.
Frederic BastiatThe people who, during the election, were so wise, so moral, so perfect, now have no tendencies whatever; or if they have any, they are tendencies that lead downward to degradation. . . . If people are as incapable, as immoral, and as ignorant as the politicians indicate, then why is the right of these same people to vote defended with such passionate insistence?
Frederic Bastiat