Vincent de Gournay

Laissez faire et laissez passer!

Let do and let pass.

Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay popularized the phrase following either (a) an anecdote about a meeting between French Finance Minister Colbert and a group of businessmen, who protested to be “let do,” as related by René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d’Argenson, or (b) economist François Quesnay, who translated “laissez faire” from the Chinese Taoist term “wu wei.”