quote · Legacy record
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
Approximate author period: c. 1825 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Frederic Bastiat
Attribution: unknown - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1825 AD · industrial
Approximate period for the recorded attribution to Frédéric Bastiat, based on documented lifetime 1801 to 1850. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13515 (checked 2026-10-08). This is not a quotation composition date or independent authentication of its attribution.
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided quotation collection
Supplied reference C; CSV row 485335; supplied attribution, independently unverified
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.