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

About Frederic Bastiat

Claude-Frederic Bastiatwas a French economist, writer and a prominent member of the French Liberal School.
A member of the French National Assembly, Bastiat developed the economic concept of opportunity cost and introduced the parable of the broken window.

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More quotes from Frederic Bastiat

Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)

When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)

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.

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)

Often the masses are plundered and do not know it.

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)

They will come to learn in the end, at their own expense, that it is better to endure competition for rich customers than to be invested with monopoly over impoverished customers.

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)

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

Frederic Bastiat

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly (1801-1850)