What, then is law [government]? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
Frederic BastiatBut how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.
Frederic BastiatProperty does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property.
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 BastiatWhen 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.
Frederic Bastiat