Monopoly is constructed in such a way that it renders immobile everything it touches.

Frédéric Bastiat
Part 1 of 8
Pamphlets

This text addressed to parliament is particularly long and the topic is the reform of the education system at the time. As such, it is neither the most modern nor the most famous text of Frédéric Bastiat but nonetheless, I managed to extract eight quotes that I believe have as much value as those from other texts. Moreover, if the details of the 1850 reform are not relevant anymore today, the thoughts of Frédéric Bastiat are sufficiently deep to find some contemporary relevance in his arguments.

This is particularly true of today’s quote from an introduction describing the then current state of affairs in French education but that keeps all its freshness out of context – monopoly is not limited to 1850 French education, unfortunately.

Other quotes from Baccalaureate and Socialism:
Part 2 of 8 – Part 3 of 8 – Part 4 of 8 – Part 5 of 8 – Part 6 of 8 – Part 7 of 8 – Part 8 of 8