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Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“There is an inherent tendency in all governmental power to recognize no restraints on its operation and to extend the sphere of its dominion as much as possible. To control everything, to leave no room for anything to happen of its own accord without the interference of the authorities--th is is the goal for which every ruler secretly strives.”

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Book:Liberalism: The Classical Tradition: The Economist
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“Laissez faire does not mean: let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: let individuals choose how they want to cooperate in the social division of labor and let them determine what the entrepreneurs should produce.”

WantShouldMeanDoeIndividualForceSocialProduceLaborEntrepreneurDetermineDivisionLaissez FaireSoullessDivision Of LaborSocial Division
Book:Planning for freedom, and sixteen other essays and addresses
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“The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is 'left' and what is 'right'? Why should Hitler be 'right' and Stalin, his temporary friend, be 'left'? Who is 'reactionary' and who is 'progressive'? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended.”

ShouldPoliticalLeftLanguageProgressStupidPolicyChaosReactionsTemporaryProgressiveUsualReactionariesUnwiseTerminologyPolitical Language
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“The greater productivity of work under the division of labor is a unifying influence. It leads men to regard each other as comrades in a joint struggle for welfare, rather than as competitors in a struggle for existence. It makes friends out of enemies, peace out of war, society out of individuals.”

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Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.”

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Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“Economics must not be relegated to classrooms and statistical offices and must not be left to esoteric circles. It is the philosophy of human life and action and concerns everybody and everything. It is the pith of civilization and of man's human existence.”

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Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“The main achievement of economics is that it has provided a theory of peaceful human cooperation. This is why the harbingers of violent conflict have branded it as a dismal science and why this age of wars, civil wars, and destruction has no use for it.”

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Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“While under precapitalistic conditions superior men were the masters on whom the masses of the inferior had to attend, under capitalism the more gifted and more able have no means to profit from their superiority other than to serve to the best of their abilities the wishes of the majority of the less gifted.”

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Book:Money, method, and the market process: essays
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“The so-called liberals of today have the very popular idea that freedom of speech, of thought, of the press, freedom of religion, freedom from imprisonment without trial-that all these freedoms can be preserved in the absence of what is called economic freedom. They do not realize that, in a system where there is no market, where the government directs everything, all those other freedoms are illusory, even if they are made into laws and written up in constitutions.”

IfsMadeIdeasGovernmentTodayLawRealizingFreedomWrittenEconomicSpeechConstitutionPressesAbsenceTrialsFreedom Of SpeechImprisonmentFreedom Of The PressIllusoryFreedom Of ReligionEconomic FreedomVery Popular
Book:Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow
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“In reality no food is valued solely for its nutritive power and no garment or house solely for the protection it affords against cold weather and rain.... the demand for goods is widely influenced by metaphysical, religious, and ethical considerations, by aesthetic value judgments, by customs, habits, prejudice, tradition, changing fashions, and many other things.”

NeedsIdeasRealityValuesHouseReligiousFashionColdHabitDemandJudgmentRainTraditionPrejudiceProtectionWeatherConsiderationGoodsCustomsEthicalAestheticMetaphysicalGarmentsCold Weather
Book:Human Action
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“Government and state can never be perfect because they owe their raison d'être to the imperfection of man and can attain their end, the elimination of man's innate impulse to violence, only by recourse to violence, the very thing they are called upon to prevent.”

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Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
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“Every man aims at avoiding what causes him pain; the activities of government ultimately consist in the infliction of pain. All great achievements of mankind were the product of a spontaneous effort on the part of individuals; government substitutes coercion for voluntary action.”

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Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
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“These people talk of a "middle-of-the-road" policy. What they do not see is that the isolated interference, which means the interference with only one small part of the economic system, brings about a situation which the government itself — and the people who are asking for government interference — find worse than the conditions they wish to abolish: the people who are asking for rent control are very angry when they discover there is a shortage of apartments and a shortage of housing.”

PeopleMeanGovernmentWishSituationEconomicMiddleConditionsPolicyAskingAngryIsolatedApartmentHousingInterferenceAbolishShortageEconomic SystemsSmall PartsMiddle Of The RoadRent Control
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau.”

MenWorldWantKindGovernmentLibertyPlansPromiseBlessingOfficeGardenDemocratImprovementEvery ManSocialismResistancePostsRevolutionaryChampionRoutineDictatorshipEdenSubordinatesClerksOmnipotentGarden Of EdenObservancePost Office
Book:Bureaucracy: The Economist
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“Every step by which an individual substitutes concerted action for isolated action results in an immediate and recognizable improvement in his conditions. The advantages derived from peaceful cooperation and division of labor are universal.”

ActionIndividualResultsStepsSocietyConditionsAdvantageLaborUniversalImprovementPeacefulDivisionSubstitutesCooperationIsolatedEvery StepDivision Of Labor
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“It is always the individual who thinks. Society does not think any more than it eats or drinks. The evolution of human reasoning from the naive thinking of primitive man to the more subtle thinking of modern science took place within society. However, thinking itself is always an achievement of individuals.”

ThinkingMenHumansDoeIndividualSocietyModernEvolutionDrinkAchievementReasoningSubtlePrimitiveNaiveModern SciencePrimitive Man
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“What is called economic progress is the joint effect of the activities of the three progressive groups-or classes-of the savers, the scientist-inventors, and the entrepreneurs, operating in a market economy as far as it is not sabotaged by the endeavors of the nonprogressive majority of the routinists and the public policies supported by them.”

ThreePoliticsClassEconomyProgressGroupsEconomicEffectsPolicyActivityScientistMajorityEntrepreneurProgressiveEndeavorJointsInventorPublic PolicyMarket EconomyEconomic Progress
Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
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