What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. Each of us has a natural right — from God — to defen… - Frédéric Bastiat

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

You say There are persons who have no money, and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk.

But things have been so admirably arranged by the Divine inventor of social order that in this, as in everything else, political economy and morality, far from clashing, agree; and the wisdom of Aristus is not only more dignified, but still more profitable, than the folly of Mondor. And when I say profitable, I do not mean only profitable to Aristus, or even to society in general, but more profitable to the workmen themselves — to the trade of the time.

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.