Quotation of the Day…

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… is from David Hart’s splendid 2019 translation – still only on-line, but forthcoming in print – of Frédéric Bastiat’s 1850 Economic Harmonies; specifically, it’s from Chapter X, titled “Competition”:

Thus, self-interest is the indomitable individual force that drives us to seek progress, makes us achieve it, and spurs us on, but which also makes us inclined to monopolize it. Competition is the no less indomitable humanitarian force that snatches progress as it is achieved from the hands of the individual in order to make it part of the common heritage of the great human family. These two forces, which can be criticized when considered separately, constitute social harmony when taken together because of the interplay of their elements in combination.

DBx: On this date, June 29th, in 1801 Bastiat was born in (or near) Bayonne, France.