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Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses between life and death. A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.”

WarGovernmentLawEvilPoliticsPeaceFreedomLibertyRightsViolenceSocietyCapitalismTradePropertyLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyIndividualismFreeFree MarketCoercionProperty RightsCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismIndividual RightsMarketsLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of Economics
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Rhetorical bombast, music and song resound, banners wave, flowers and colors serve as symbols, and the leaders seek to attach their followers to their own person. Liberalism has nothing to do with all this. It has no party flower and no party color, no party song and no party idols, no symbols and no slogans. It has the substance and the arguments. These must lead it to victory.”

WarGovernmentEvilPoliticsPeaceFreedomLibertySocietyCapitalismTradeLibertarianSocialismCommunismLiberalismNationalismAnarchyFascismFreeTaxationFree MarketTheftCoercionStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression Principle
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“What ranks above all else for economic and political reconstruction is a radical change of ideologies. Economic prosperity is not so much a material problem; it is, first of all, an intellectual, spiritual, and moral problem.”

GovernmentEvilPoliticsFreedomLibertyMoralityEthicsCapitalismEconomicsTradeLibertarianSocialismAnarchyMoralsFreeFree MarketCoercionCollectivismImmoralityStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of Economics
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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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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“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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“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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“It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. The funds that a government spends for whatever purposes are levied by taxation. And taxes are paid because the taxpayers are afraid of offering resistance to the tax gatherers. They know that any disobedience or resistance is hopeless. As long as this is the state of affairs, the government is able to collect the money that it wants to spend.”

ThinkingKnowsWantMeanLongImportantStatesGovernmentAbleActionRememberPurposeTaxesPaidThreatAffairViolentResistanceFundHopelessOfferingTaxationTaxpayersDisobedienceInterference
Book:Human Action
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“Government force is derived from the sum of the physical force each citizen could exert which by one citizen himself would be ineffective, but when summed from the force of all the area's citizens indeed composes a power no citizen or group can withstand. That force is then rightly but justly to be used against those who violate the foundation pillars of freedom.”

WarGovernmentWould BeUsedForceGroupsCitizensAreasFoundationPillarsPhysical Force
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“A famous, very often quoted phrase says: "That government is best, which governs least." I do not believe this to be a correct description of of the functions of a good government. Government ought to do all the things for which it is needed and for which it is established. Government ought to protect the individuals within the country against the violent and fraudulent attacks of gangsters, and it should defend the country against foreign enemies. These are the functions of government within a free system, within the system of the market economy.”

ShouldBelieveCountryGovernmentIndividualEnemyEconomyOughtNeededProtectFunctionViolentPhrasesDescriptionGangstersMarket Economy
Book:Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow
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“The unprecedented success of Keynesianism is due to the fact that it provides an apparent justification for the 'deficit spending' policies of contemporary governments. It is the pseudo-philosophy of those who can think of nothing else than to dissipate the capital accumulated by previous generations.”

ThinkingPhilosophyFactsGovernmentGenerationsPolicySpendingDuesContemporaryJustificationDeficitUnprecedentedPseudoPrevious GenerationsDeficit SpendingKeynesianism
Book:Planning for freedom, and twelve other essays and addresses
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“Welfare policies never attain those - allegedly beneficial - ends which the government and the self-styled progressives who advocated them wanted to attain, but - on the contrary - bring about a state of affairs which - from the very point of view of the government and its supporters - is even more unsatisfactory than the previous state of affairs they wanted to 'improve.'”

EndsSelfStatesGovernmentWantedViewsPolicyAffairPoint Of ViewContraryWelfareSupporterBeneficial
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“The government pretends to be endowed with the mystical power to accord favors out of an inexhaustible horn of plenty. It is both omniscient and omnipotent. It can by a magic wand create happiness and abundance. The truth is the government cannot give if it does not take from somebody.”

IfsGivingDoeGovernmentMagicTruth IsFavorsPlentyAbundanceMysticalHornsAccordWandsOmnipotentOmniscientMagic Wands
Book:Bureaucracy: The Economist
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“Notwithstanding all the passionate fulminations of the spokesmen of governments, the inevitable consequences of inflationism and expansionism...are coming to pass. And then, very late indeed, even simple people will discover that Keynes did not teach us how to perform the 'miracle...of turning a stone into bread,' but the not at all miraculous procedure of eating the seed corn.”

PeopleGovernmentSimpleTeachLateEatingConsequenceStonesMiraclePassionateSeedsBreadInevitableMiraculousCornProceduresKeynes
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“The characteristic mark of this age of dictators, wars and revolutions is its anticapitalistic bias. Most governments and political parties were eager to restrict the sphere of private initiative and free enterprise.”

WarGovernmentAgePoliticalPartyRevolutionMarkCharacteristicsEnterpriseSpheresInitiativeDictatorBiasPolitical PartiesFree Enterprise
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“Government policies try to prevent the emergence of serious unemployment by credit expansion, i.e., inflation. The outcome was rising prices, renewed demands for higher wages and reiterated credit expansion; in short, protracted inflation.”

TryingGovernmentPolicySeriousHigherDemandCreditOutcomesRisingExpansionUnemploymentWagesInflationEmergenceGovernment PolicyRising Prices
Book:Planning for freedom, and sixteen other essays and addresses
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“Capitalism means free enterprise, sovereignty of the consumers in economic matters, and sovereignty of the voters in political matters. Socialism means full government control of every sphere of the individuals life and the unrestricted supremacy of the government in its capacity as central board of production management.”

MeanMatterGovernmentPoliticalIndividualEconomicCapitalismCapacityManagementProductionsSocialismConsumersBoardsEnterpriseVotersSpheresSovereigntySupremacyFree Enterprise
Book:Bureaucracy
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“There is simply no other choice than this: either to abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government. Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way.”

WayPlayGovernmentChoicesMiddleCapitalismManagementProductionsSocialismDistributionInterferenceDelegatesMiddle WayFree Play
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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“The recurrence of periods of depression and mass unemployment has discredited capitalism in the opinion of injudicious people. Yet these events are not the outcome of the operation of the free market. They are on the contrary the result of well-intentioned but ill-advised government interference with the market.”

PeopleWellsGovernmentResultsLibertyOpinionEconomicEventsPeriodsMassCapitalismEconomicsIllContraryOperationsOutcomesUnemploymentFree MarketInterferenceRecurrence
Book:Middle of the Road Policy Leads to Socialism
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“The main propoganda trick of supporters of the allegedly "progressive" policy of government control is to blame capitalism for all that is unsatisfactory in present-day conditions and to extol the blessings of socialism. They have never attempted to prove their fallacious dogmas, all they did was to call their adversaries names and cast suspicion upon their motives. And, unfortunately, the average citizen cannot see through these stratagems. The liars must be afraid of the truth and are therefore driven to suppress its pronouncement.”

PhilosophyGovernmentPoliticalNamesConditionsPolicyCitizensBlessingProveCapitalismEconomicsBlameAverageCastsDrivenTricksSocialismMotiveLiarsProgressiveDogmaSuspicionSupporterAdversariesPresent DayStratagem
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“If you give the government the right to determine the consumption of the human body, to determine whether one should smoke or not smoke, drink or not drink, there is no good reply you can give to people who say, More important than the body is the mind and the soul, and man hurts himself much more by reading bad books, by listening to bad music and looking at bad movies. Therefore it is the duty of the government to prevent people from committing those faults. And, as you know, for many hundreds of years governments and authorities velieved that it was their duty.”

PeopleIfsKnowsMenGivingShouldYearsMindHumansImportantBookSoulBodyGovernmentReadingHurtFreedomDutyListeningMoralityDrinkAuthorityFaultsDetermineSmokeConsumptionHuman BodyBad MoviesBad Music
Book:Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow
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