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Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“So far as Feminism seeks to adjust the legal position of woman to that of man, so far as it seeks to offer her legal and economic freedom to develop and act in accordance with her inclinations, desires, and economic circumstances—so far it is nothing more than a branch of the great liberal movement, which advocates peaceful and free evolution.”

MenDesireFeminismEconomicMovementPositionEvolutionCircumstancesOffersPeacefulBranchesInclinationEconomic FreedomGreat Liberal
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“Library of the Works of Ludwig von Mises”. Here is an article he wrote in 1951, some two years after his magnum opus Human Action appeared, where is lays out his case in a more popular form. The money sentences are “Economic theory has demonstrated in an irrefutable way that a prosperity created by an expansionist monetary and credit policy is illusory and must end in a slump, an economic crisis. It has happened again and again in the past, and it will happen in the future, too.”

WayYearsHumansTwoEndsHappensActionPastFormCasesHappenedEconomicPolicyTheoryCrisisLaysLibraryProsperityCreditSentencesTwo YearsArticlesAgain And AgainMonetaryIllusoryHuman ActionsEconomic CrisisEconomic TheorySlumpsVon Mises
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“It cannot be denied that Fascism and similar movements aiming at the establishment of dictatorships are full of the best intentions and that their intervention has, for the moment, saved European civilization. The merit that Fascism has thereby won for itself will live on eternally in history.”

MomentsMovementCivilizationIntentionSavedMeritFascismDeniedEstablishmentDictatorshipInterventionBest Intentions
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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“Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in our sense of the word All economic change, therefore, would involve operations the value of which could neither be predicted beforehand nor ascertained after they had taken place. Everything would be a leap in the dark. Socialism is the renunciation of rational economy.”

Would BeValuesDarkEconomyTakenImpossibleEconomicActivitySocialismRationalOperationsLeapCalculationsRenunciationEconomic Change
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“The characteristic feature of militarism is not the fact that a nation has a powerful army or navy. It is the paramount role assigned to the army within the political structure. Even in peacetime the army is supreme; it is the predominant factor in political life. The subjects must obey the government as soldiers must obey their superiors. Within a militarist community there is no freedom; there are only obedience and discipline.”

FactsGovernmentPoliticalNationsCommunityPowerfulRolesSubjectsDisciplineArmyStructureSoldierSupremeSuperiorsFactorsObedienceFeaturesCharacteristicsNavyParamountMilitarismPolitical Life
Book:Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War
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“Man is born an asocial and antisocial being. The newborn child is a savage. Egoism is his nature. Only the experience of life and the teachings of his parents, his brothers, sisters, playmates, and later of other people FORCE HIM to acknowledge the advantages of social cooperation and accordingly to change his behavior.”

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Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“People do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because this best serves their own interests. Neither love nor charity nor any other sympathetic sentiments but rightly understood selfishness is what originally impelled man to adjust himself to the requirements of society, to respect the rights and freedoms of his fellow men and to substitute peaceful collaboration for enmity and conflict.”

PeopleMenShouldInterestRightsConflictUnderstoodLaborFellowsCharityPeacefulSelfishnessDivisionSentimentsSubstitutesCollaborationRequirementsFellow ManSympatheticLove One AnotherEnmityRights And FreedomsDivision Of Labor
Book:Human Action
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“Do the American voters know that the unprecedented improvement in their standard of living that the last hundred years brought was the result of the steady rise in the per-head quota of capital invested? Do they realize that every measure leading to capital decumulation jeopardizes their prosperity?”

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Book:Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses
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“As the prosperity of the nation and the height of wage rates depend on a continual increase in the capital invested in its plants, mines and farms, it is one of the foremost tasks of good government to remove all obstacles that hinder the accumulation and investment of new capital.”

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Book:Planning for freedom, and sixteen other essays and addresses
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“If we live our lives as a gift it is possible to reach a blissful state of eternal happiness. It is those who live their life with a sense of entitlement that undermine peace , freedom and liberty. Know that every breath is a miracle and every moment a blessing and you will achieve your dreams. Planning other people's actions means to prevent them from planning for themselves, means to deprive them of their essentially human quality, means enslaving them.”

PeopleIfsKnowsHumansMeanStatesMomentsDreamActionQualityLibertyOur LivesAchieveBlessingEternalMiracleBreathsPlanningYour DreamsEntitlementFreedom And LibertyHuman QualitiesEternal HappinessAchieving Your DreamsSense Of EntitlementOther People's Actions
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“It is completely in accord with the etatist thinking prevalent everywhere today to consider a theory to be finally disposed of merely because the authorities who control appointments to academic positions, want to know nothing of it, and to see the criterion of truth in the approval of a government office.”

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Book:Epistemological Problems of Economics
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“The market economy is the social system of the division of labor under private ownership of the means of production. Everybody acts on his own behalf; but everybodys actions aim at the satisfaction of other peoples needs as well as at the satisfaction of his own. Everybody in acting serves his fellow citizens.”

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Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“In the land of the lotus-eaters there is no action. Action arises only from need, from dissatisfaction. It is purposeful striving towards something. Its ultimate end is always to get rid of a condition which is conceived to be deficient-to fulfill a need, to achieve satisfaction, to increase happiness.”

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Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“There is no use in deceiving ourselves. American public opinion rejects the market economy, the capitalistic free enterprise system that provided the nation with the highest standard of living ever attained. Full government control of all activities of the individual is virtually the goal of both national parties.”

UseGovernmentIndividualNationsGoalPartyOpinionEconomyActivityHighestStandardsLibertarianEnterpriseRejectsDeceivingPublic OpinionStandards Of LivingFree EnterpriseMarket EconomyDeceiving Ourselves
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“The body of economic knowledge is an essential element in the structure of human civilization; it is the foundation upon which modern industrialism and all the moral, intellectual, technological, and therapeutical achievements of the last centuries have been built.”

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Book:Human Action
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