"Are we really certain that the mechanism of society, like the 
    mechanism of the heavenly bodies or the mechanism of the human 
    body, is subject to general laws? Are we really certain that 
    it is a harmoniously organized whole? Or is it not true that 
    what is most notable in society is the absence of all order?"

   "So ingenious, so powerful, then, is the social mechanism that 
    every man, even the humblest, obtains in one day more 
    satisfactions than he could produce for himself in several 
    centuries."

   "Let us note that man is made in such a way that he seeks 
    pleasure and shuns pain. From this source, I agree, come all 
    the evils of society: war, slavery, monopoly, privilege; but 
    from this source also come all the good things of life, since 
    the satisfaction of wants and the avoidance of suffering are 
    the motives of human action."

    -Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), Economic Harmonies (1850)