Quotessence
Home / Authors / Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenGovernmentEconomicLibertyCapitalismEconomicsPeopleIfsSocialismMeanProductionsStatesWarEconomyActionLibertarianSocialFreedomConsumersHumans

Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“The idea of Socialism is at once grandiose and simple. . .We may say, in fact, that it is one of the most ambitious creations of the human spirit, . . .so magnificent, so daring, that it has rightly aroused the greatest admiration. If we wish to save the world from barbarism we have to refute Socialism, but we cannot thrust it carelessly aside.”

IfsWorldHumansMayIdeasFactsSpiritWishSimpleCreationSocialismAdmirationDaringAmbitiousMagnificentHuman SpiritThrustSave The WorldBarbarismGrandiose
Author:Ludwig von Mises
Create image

“Under capitalism the common man enjoys amenities which in ages gone by were unknown and therefore inaccessible even to the richest people. But, of course, these motorcars, television sets and refrigerators do not make a man happy. In the instant in which he acquires them, he may feel happier than he did before. But as soon as some of his wishes are satisfied, new wishes spring up. Such is human nature.”

PeopleMenFeelsHumansMayAgeCoursesWishEnjoyCommonGoneHuman NatureTelevisionSpringCapitalismSatisfiedInstantAcquireCommon ManRefrigeratorsInaccessibleAmenities
Author:Ludwig von Mises
Create image

“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.”

MenHumansDoeTwoSocialHuman BeingsCapitalismSocialismAlternativesCooperationSocial SystemsDisintegrationCapitalism And Socialism
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
Create image

“We do not assert that the capitalist mode of economic calculation guarantees the absolutely best solution of the allocation of factors of production. Such absolutely perfect solutions of any problem are out of reach of mortal men. What the operation of a market not sabotaged by the interference of compulsion and coercion can bring about is merely the best solution accessible to the human mind under the given state of technological knowledge and the intellectual abilities of the age's shrewdest men.”

MenMindHumansStatesProblemAgeGivenAbilityPerfectEconomicIntellectualSolutionsCapitalismProductionsFactorsMortalsOperationsGuaranteesHuman MindCapitalistTechnologicalCompulsionCoercionCalculationsInterferenceAllocationFactors Of Production
Author:Ludwig von Mises
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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.”

HumansHas BeensWisdomBodyLastsMoralSocietyEconomicModernCenturyCivilizationEssentialsElementsAchievementIntellectualBuiltFoundationStructureTechnologicalHuman Civilization
Book:Human Action
Create image

“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.”

MenHumansPhilosophyActionLeftExistenceCivilizationOfficeConcernEconomicsCirclesHuman LifeClassroomHuman ExistenceEsoteric
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
Create image

“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.”

HumansWarUseAgeTheoryConflictAchievementEconomicsDestructionViolentPeacefulCivil WarCooperationBrandedHarbinger
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
Create image

“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
Create image