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Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“Reason's biological function is to preserve and promote life and to postpone its extinction as long as possible. Thinking and acting are not contrary to nature; they are, rather, the foremost features of man's nature. The most appropriate description of man as differentiated from nonhuman beings is: a being purposively struggling against the forces adverse to his life.”

ThinkingMenLongReasonForceActingStruggleFunctionContraryPreservesFeaturesAppropriateDescriptionExtinctionAdverse
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“Society cannot contribute anything to the breeding and growing of ingenious men. A creative genius cannot be trained. There are no schools for creativeness. A genius is precisely a man who defies all schools and rules, who deviates from the traditional roads of routine and opens up new paths through land inaccessible before. A genius is always a teacher, never a pupil; he is always self-made.”

MenMadeSelfSchoolCreativePathTeacherGrowingLandGeniusTraditionalRoutinePupilsBreedingIngeniousSelf MadeInaccessibleCreativenessDeviateNew PathsCreative Genius
Book:Bureaucracy: The Economist
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“The prevailing legal and moral views of a time are held not only by those whom they benefit but by those, too, who appear to suffer from them. Their domination is expressed in that fact- that the people from whom they claim sacrifice accept them.”

PeopleFactsSufferingViewsAcceptingMoralSacrificeBenefitsClaimsDominationPrevailing
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“There is in the universe something for the description and analysis of which the natural sciences cannot contribute anything. There are events beyond the range of those events that the procedures of the natural sciences are fit to observe and describe. There is human action.”

HumansActionUniverseNaturalSocietyEventsFitRangeAnalysisDescriptionProceduresNatural ScienceHuman Actions
Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
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“Scientific research sooner or later, but inevitably, encounters something ultimately given that it cannot trace back to something else of which it would appear as the regular or necessary derivative. Scientific progress consists in pushing further back this ultimately given.”

GivenProgressSocietyResearchEncountersPushingSooner Or LaterScientific ResearchDerivativesScientific Progress
Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
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“The liberals of the eighteenth century, guided by the ideas of natural law and of the Enlightenment, demanded for everyone equality of political and civil rights... Nothing, however, is as ill-founded as the assertion of the alleged equality of all members of the human race.”

HumansIdeasLawPoliticalNaturalRaceRightsCenturyMembersEnlightenmentIllCivil RightsHuman RaceAssertionNatural Law
Book:Liberalism: The Classical Tradition: The Economist
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“Spiritual movements are revolts of thought against inertia, of the few against the many; of those who because they are strong in spirit are strongest alone against those who can express themselves only in the mass and the mob, and who are significant only because they are numerous.”

SpiritualSpiritSpiritualityPoliticsStrongFreedomLibertyPowerDemocracyMovementMassSignificantSocialismStrongestRevoltInertiaDemocracy Freedom
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“Violent resistance against the power of the state is the last resort of the minority in its effort to break loose from the oppression of the majority. ... The citizen must not be so narrowly circumscribed in his activities that, if he thinks differently from those in power, his only choice is either to perish or to destroy the machinery of state.”

IfsThinkingStatesLastsChoicesEffortBreakDemocracyViolenceCitizensActivityEconomicsMajorityViolentResistanceOppressionMinoritiesMachineryResorts
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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“There are for man only two principles available for a mental grasp of reality, namely, those of teleology and causality. What cannot be brought under either of these categories is absolutely hidden to the human mind. An event not open to an interpretation by one of these two principles is for man inconceivable and mysterious. Change can be conceived as the outcome either of the operation of mechanistic causality or of purposeful behavior; for the human mind there is no third way available.”

MenWayMindHumansTwoReasonRealityTruthReligionPrinciplesKnowledgeLearningEventsBehaviorThirdsAvailableMysteriousOperationsOutcomesInterpretationHuman MindCategoriesExperimentationCausality
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build, it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created.”

WorldYearsMeanDoeOrderSocialProduceCivilizationDestructionEssenceProductionsSocialismOwnershipPioneersSocial OrderSpoilers
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate. They misuse their power for the oppression of those whom they were expected to defend against oppression. The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.”

MenProblemPoliticalTurnsCommunityLibertyStruggleDangerousHe ManBecomingProtectPoliceExpectedViolentOppressionAggressionMandatesMisuseAggressorsPolice Power
Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
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“The law-abiding citizen by his labor serves both himself and his fellow man and thereby integrates himself peacefully into the social order. The robber, on the other hand, is intent, not on honest toil, but on the forcible appropriation of the fruits of others' labor.”

MenHandsLawOrderSocialHonestCitizensLaborFellowsFruitToilFellow ManAbidingIntegratingRobbersSocial OrderAppropriationLaw Abiding Citizen
Book:Liberalism: The Classical Tradition: The Economist
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“Resentment is at work when one so hates somebody for his more favorable circumstances that one is prepared to bear heavy losses if only the hated one might also come to harm. Many of those who attack capitalism know very well that their situation under any other economic system will be less favorable.”

IfsKnowsWellsMightHateLossSituationEconomicBearsCircumstancesCapitalismPreparedHeavyHarmHatedResentmentEconomic Systems
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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“You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: you are inferior and all the improvements in your conditions which you simply take for granted you owe to the effort of men who are better than you. If this be arrogance, as some of your critics observed, it is still the truth that had to said in the age of the Welfare State.”

IfsMenSaidStillsStatesAgeEffortConditionsPoliticianMassCriticsImprovementGrantedWelfareArroganceInferiorsBetter Than YouWelfare State
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Permanent mass unemployment destroys the moral foundations of the social order. The young people, who, having finished their training for work, are forced to remain idle, are the ferment out of which the most radical political movements are formed. In their ranks the soldiers of the coming revolutions are recruited.”

PeopleYoungPoliticalOrderSocialMoralMovementRevolutionMassTrainingFoundationSoldierFinishedRadicalPermanentIdleUnemploymentSocial OrderPolitical Movements
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“As the liberal sees it, the task of the state consists solely and exclusively in guaranteeing the protection of life, health, liberty, and private property against violent attacks. Everything that goes beyond this is an evil. A government that, instead of fulfilling its task, sought to go so far as actually to infringe on personal security of life and health, freedom, and property would, of course, be altogether bad.”

StatesGovernmentCoursesEvilLibertySecurityTasksPropertyProtectionViolentFulfillingPrivate PropertyPersonal Security
Book:Liberalism: The Classical Tradition: The Economist
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“If one takes pleasure in calling the gold standard a "barbarous relic," one cannot object to the application of the same term to every historically determined institution. Then the fact that the British speak English - and not Danish, German, or French - is a barbarous relic too, and every Briton who opposes the substitution of Esperanto for English is no less dogmatic and orthodox than those who do not wax rapturous about the plans for a managed currency.”

IfsFactsSpeakTermPleasurePlansObjectsCallingStandardsGoldInstitutionsBritishDeterminedOrthodoxApplicationCurrencyDogmaticRelicsSpeak EnglishSubstitutionDanishGold StandardBritonsEsperanto
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Inflationism, however, is not an isolated phenomenon. It is only one piece in the total framework of politico-economic and socio-philosophical ideas of our time. Just as the sound money policy of gold standard advocates went hand in hand with liberalism, free trade, capitalism and peace, so is inflationism part and parcel of imperialism, militarism, protectionism, statism and socialism.”

IdeasHandsSoundPiecesEconomicPolicyStandardsCapitalismGoldPhilosophicalTradeInvestingSocialismOur TimeLiberalismPhenomenonIsolatedImperialismFrameworkHand In HandFree TradeOne PieceMilitarismParcelGold StandardProtectionism
Book:On the Manipulation of Money and Credit
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“If history could prove and teach us anything, it would be the private ownership of the means of production as a necessary requisite of civilization and material well-being. All civilizations have up to now been based on private property. Only nations committed to the principle of private property have risen above penury and produced science, art, and literature. There is no experience to show that any other social system could provide mankind with any of the achievements of civilization.”

IfsWellsMeanArtShowsWisdomWould BeLiteraturePoliticsNationsSocialPrinciplesTeachEconomyMankindMaterialsCivilizationProveAchievementPropertyCommittedProductionsWell BeingLiberalismOwnershipRisenPrivate PropertySocial Systems
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Louis XIV was very frank and sincere when he said: I am the State. The modern statist is modest. He says: I am the servant of the State; but, he implies, the State is God. You could revolt against a Bourbon king, and the French did it. This was, of course, a struggle of man against man. But you cannot revolt against the god State and against his humble handy man, the bureaucrat.”

MenSaidStatesCoursesStruggleModernKingsHumbleServantSincereFrankModestRevoltBureaucratsHandyBourbon
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant's feet. Then the oppressed many will rise in rebellion and overthrow their masters.”

LongIdeasGovernmentRunningSupportCuttingFeetMastersMajorityCrueltyIdeologyRebellionTyrantsLong RunsOppressedBrutality
Book:An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution: The Economist
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“Behaviorism proposes to study human behavior according to the methods developed by animal and infant psychology. It seeks to investigate reflexes and instincts, automatisms and unconscious reactions. But it has told us nothing about the reflexes that have built cathedrals, railroads, and fortresses, the instincts that have produced philosophies, poems, and legal systems, the automatisms that have resulted in the growth and decline of empires, the unconscious reactions that are splitting atoms.”

HumansPhilosophyGrowthAnimalStudyPsychologyBehaviorBuiltMethodInstinctReactionsUnconsciousEmpiresAtomsDeclineHuman BehaviorInfantProposeCathedralsRailroadsReflexesLegal SystemFortressesSplittingBehaviorismSplitting The Atom
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“What people today call inflation is not inflation, i.e., the increase in the quantity of money and money substitutes, but the general rise in commodity prices and wage rates which is the inevitable consequence of inflation.”

PeopleTodayConsequenceIncreaseRateInvestingInevitableSubstitutesQuantityCommodityInflationCommodity Prices
Book:Planning for freedom, and twelve other essays and addresses
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“Once public opinion is convinced that the increase in the quantity of money will continue and never come to an end, and that consequently the prices of all commodities will not cease to rise, everybody becomes eager to buy as much as possible and restrict his cash holdings to minimum size... If the credit expansion is not stopped in time, the boom turns to crack-up boom: the flight into real values begins, and the whole monetary system founders.”

IfsRealEndsWholeValuesTurnsOpinionIncreaseInvestingSizeCreditConvincedCeaseFlightCracksCashQuantityFoundersMinimumExpansionCommodityPublic OpinionMonetaryReal ValueMonetary System
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty. Government is a guarantor of liberty and is compatible with liberty only if its range is adequately restricted to the preservation of economic freedom. Where there is no market economy, the best-intentioned provisions of constitutions and laws remain a dead letter.”

IfsMeanGovernmentLawLibertyEconomyEconomicLettersOppositesConstitutionInvestingRangePreservationCompulsionProvisionCoercionCompatibleMarket EconomyEconomic Freedom
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“There is no means by which anyone can evade his personal responsibility. Whoever neglects to examine to the best of his abilities all the problems involved voluntarily surrenders his birthright to a selfappointed elite of supermen. In such vital matters blind reliance upon 'experts' and uncritical acceptance of popular catchwords and prejudices is tantamount to the abandonment of self-determination and to yielding to other people's domination. As conditions are today, nothing can be more important to every intelligent man than economics. His own fate and that of his progeny are at stake.”

PeopleMenMeanImportantSelfMatterProblemTodayAbilityResponsibilityFateConditionsAcceptanceInvolvedDeterminationEconomicsPrejudiceIntelligentBlindInvestingSurrenderExpertsNeglectStakesElitesSelf DeterminationDominationRelianceAbandonmentPersonal ResponsibilityBirthrightIntelligent ManProgeny
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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