The Law - Frederic Bastiat - Platanus Publishing

If every man has the right of defending, even by force, his person, his libery, and his property, a number of men have the right to combine together to extend, to organize a common force to provide regularly for this defense.

Collective right, then, has its principle, its reason for existing, its lawfulness, in individual right; and the common force cannot raitonally have any other end, or any other mission, than that of the isolated forces for which it is substituted. Thus, as the force of an individual cannot lawfuly touch the person, the liberty or the property of another individual-for the same reason, the common force cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, the liberty, or the property of individuals or of classes.