Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
Frederic BastiatEach of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.
Frederic BastiatNothing is more senseless than to base so many expectations on the state, that is, to assume the existence of collective wisdom and foresight after taking for granted the existence of individual imbecility and improvidence.
Frederic BastiatWhen plunder becomes a way of life, men create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
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 BastiatThe sort of dependence that results from exchange, i.e., from commercial transactions, is a reciprocal dependence. We cannot be dependent upon a foreigner without his being dependent on us. Now, this is what constitutes the very essence of society. To sever natural interrelations is not to make oneself independent, but to isolate oneself completely.
Frederic Bastiat