Peace and freedom! It is certainly not possible to aspire to two more-elevated objects in the social order.

Frédéric Bastiat
Pamphlets
Introduction

The full title of this pamphlet is “Peace and Freedom or the Republican Budget”. It is a long report aiming at presenting the position of Frédéric Bastiat concerning the budget to be voted in 1849, at a time when the French governments keep accumulating budget deficits. Despite the similarities that can be found with the current situation, these are not the most fluent pages of the Complete Works but there are still some interesting thoughts that helped me cut the text in seven parts and extract as many quotes from it.

Today’s quote speaks for itself and one could even argue that this embraces the whole philosophy of Bastiat. Freedom is not only what makes man what he is (in the absence of which he would be a slave) but it is also in the service of such a state of society that is so desirable for men,  namely the state of peace.

Other quotes from Peace and Freedom:
Introduction – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Conclusion