“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” — Frédéric Bastiat in “The Law.”
If you haven’t read “The Law” yet, you can download it here for free. It is one of the most marvelous works of economics and philosophy.
Alan Joel, our society today is so very indoctrinated with “Political Correctness” whereby elements actually think that our Declaration Of Independence is a sexist document. “We hold these truths to be self evident that all MEN are created equally” etc etc. Just how far do you think that Frederic Bastiat’ s The Law would be received when he states that “life, liberty and property do not exist because MEN have made laws” etc ? With such muddled thinking nay loss of common sense being gradually accepted by the masses, great past documents will unfortunately lose their importance and relevance because of sexist nonsense.. How much worse off will be then as a nation ?
Bastiat is one of the greatest modern minds. Thank you for sharing the quote and link. It should be required reading.