Quotes

The good ones:

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.
Aristotle

Liberty tends inevitably to lead to the just equivalence of services, to bring about greater and greater equality, to raise all men up to the same, constantly rising standard of living.
Frederic Bastiat

The progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of peace, the spread of commerce, and the diffusion of education, than upon the labours of cabinets and foreign offices.
Frederic Bastiat

When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will.
Frederic Bastiat

The world was not represented on the streets of Seattle. The truth is, most
of the world's population was inside the conference room in Seattle, not
outside. It was developing countries, like us, who want a fairer share of
the pie, not to destroy the pie. I can't grow unless I integrate with the
global economy, but the trade rules by the developed countries are unfair.
Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian Minister of Economy

As a nation of Bible Christians, we ought to realize that trade should be
as free as the winds of heaven.
John Bright

It is labour improvements and discoveries that confer the greatest strength upon a people. By these alone and not by the sword of the conqueror, can nations in modem and all future times hope to rise to power and grandeur.
Richard Cobden

Warriors and despots are generally bad economists and they instinctively carry their ideas of force and violence into the civil politics of their governments. Free trade is a principle which recognises the paramount importance of individual action.
Richard Cobden

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom.
Albert Einstein

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin

No nation was ever ruined by trade.
Benjamin Franklin

If an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place
unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies
derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume
that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of
another.
Milton Friedman

We should hold to Free Trade as a principle of international morals, and
not merely as a doctrine of economic advantage.
John Maynard Keynes

What generates war is the economic philosophy of nationalism: embargoes,
trade and foreign exchange controls, monetary devaluation, etc. The
philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.
Ludwig von Mises

What distinguishes man from animals is the insight into the advantages that can be derived from co-operation under the division of labour. Man curbs his innate instinct of aggression in order to co-operate with other human beings. The more he wants to improve his material well being, the more he must expand the system of the division of labour.
Ludwig von Mises

Peace is a natural effect of trade.
Montesquieu

If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbours. There is no other.
Carl Schurz

What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly
in that of a great kingdom. If a foreign country can supply us with a
commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with
some part of the produce of our own industry employed in a way in which we
have some advantage.
Adam Smith

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest
of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary
for promoting that of the consumer.
Adam Smith

I wish they weren't using my name and the name Tobin tax to associate me
with their whole platform. I am not a member of ATTAC and I am not supporting it.
James Tobin

Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions. Trade loves moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger. It is patient, supple, and insinuating, only resorting to extreme measures in cases of absolute necessity. Trade makes men independent of one another and gives them a high idea of their personal importance: it leads them to want to manage their own affairs and teaches them to succeed therein. Hence it makes them inclined to liberty but disinclined to revolution.
Alexis de Tocqueville

A peculiar alliance has recently come into life. Forces from the extreme left, the extreme right, environmentalist groups, trade unions of developed countries and some self-appointed representatives of civil society, are gathering around a common endeavour: to save the people of developing countries from... development.
Ernesto Zedillo, President of Mexico

The not so good ones:

Free trade is never fair trade.
ATTAC Newsletter 81

At the same time, the European Commission and certain governments intend to
pursue their free-trade crusade through the New Transatlantic Market (NTM)
agreement, which openly seeks to assure the hegemony of the United States in
the audio-visual industry and dismantle the common agricultural policy.
International Program of ATTAC from December 1998, pointing out the organisation's main enemies

[We] are against globalisation
Bernard Cassen, Founder and President of ATTAC, speech in London, June 17, 2000

Financial markets [are] as murderous and as fatal to human freedom on an international level as the worst modern-day political and military tyrannies.
Bernard Cassen trivialises dictatorships and condemns financial markets in his opening speech at "Another world is possible" June 24, 1999

[In] particular, I'm very surprised by the argument that poorer countries, undeveloped countries, must have more market access to developed ones. What does that mean, in reality. That means that you expect undeveloped countries to export. To export what? To export commodities that they need for their own internal market. [...] we must return to self-centred economies, and not to export-led economies that have proved a real failure.
Bernard Cassen, speech in London, June 17, 2000

ATTAC is not a violent organisation, but among us are groups of young people who are against everything - even ATTAC. They take to violence. We don't do it ourselves, but neither do we condemn it. Their anger is created by Capitalism.
Bernard Cassen in Danish Ekstra Bladet, February 24, 2001

No matter where I go, even if I go to China, I'm confronted with the yellow logo of McDonald's, even in Chile and Russia. Everywhere! McDonald's have made itself a symbol of globalisation, so they shouldn't be surprised when their buildings are destroyed.
Bernard Cassen defends sabotage acts against McDonald's as self-defence against a provocation in Danish "Aktuelt", February 26, 2001

I've tried to find one single advantage with globalisation. But with no result. [...] To develop a credible alternative isn't anything we give a high priority [...] Instead, ATTAC should be an activist protest movement.
Bernard Cassen in Norwegian "Aftenposten" March 2, 2001