What, then, is law? As I have said elsewhere, it is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defence. - Frédéric Bastiat

What needs explanation is not poverty, which is the natural state of mankind, but wealth.

But the law is made, generally, by one man, or by one class of men. And as law cannot exist without the sanction and the support of a preponderating force, it must finally place this force in the hands of those who legislate.

A work that undertakes the refutation of vulgar prejudices, cannot have so high an aim. It aspires only to clear the way for the steps of Truth; to prepare the minds of men to receive her; to rectify public opinion, and to snatch from unworthy hands dangerous weapons they misuse.