Quotessence
Home / Authors / Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenGovernmentEconomicLibertyCapitalismEconomicsPeopleIfsSocialismMeanProductionsStatesWarEconomyActionLibertarianSocialFreedomConsumersHumans

Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“He who acts under an emotional impulse also acts. What distinguishes an emotional action from other actions is the valuation of input and output. Emotions disarrange valuations. Inflamed with passion, man sees the goal as more desirable and the price he has to pay for it as less burdensome than he would in cool deliberation.”

MenActionPassionGoalPayEmotionLibertyEconomicEmotionalEconomicsImpulseDesirableInputOutputDeliberationValuation
Book:Human Action
Create image

“The real bosses in the capitalist system of market economy are the consumers. They by their buying and by their abstention from buying decide who should own the capital and run the plants. They determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. Their attitudes result either in profit or in loss for the enterpriser. They make poor men rich and rich men poor. They are no easy bosses.”

MenShouldRealRunningEasyLossPoorResultsAttitudeQualityLibertyEconomyRichEconomicPlantDetermineProfitConsumersBuyingBossCapitalistQuantityRich ManPoor ManMarket EconomyAbstentionQuantity And QualityReal Boss
Book:Bureaucracy
Create image

“Capitalism is essentially a system of mass production for the satisfaction of the needs of the masses. It pours a horn of plenty upon the common man. It has raised the average standard of living to a height never dreamed of in earlier ages. It has made accessible to millions of people enjoyments which a few generations ago were only within the reach of a small élite.”

PeopleMenNeedsMadeAgeCommonMillionsGenerationsMassStandardsCapitalismRaisedAverageSatisfactionProductionsPlentyHeightEnjoymentHornsStandards Of LivingCommon ManMass Production
Book:Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, The
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

“It is not the fault of the entrepreneurs that the consumers,the people, the common man,prefer liquor to Bibles and detective stories to serious books, and that governments prefer guns to butter. The entrepreneur does not make greater profits in selling bad things than in selling good things. His profits are the greater the better he succeeds in providing the consumers with those things they ask for most intensely.”

PeopleMenDoeBookStoriesGovernmentAsksCommonGreaterSeriousSucceedGunEntrepreneurGood ThingsFaultsProfitSellingConsumersBad ThingsProvidingDetectivesLiquorCommon ManDetective Stories
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
Create image

“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
Create image

“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.”

PeopleMenChildrenForceSocialParentBornTeachingBrotherBehaviorAdvantageAcknowledgeCooperationSavagesEgoismNewbornAntisocialBrother SisterNewborn Child
Author:Ludwig von Mises
Create image

“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
Create image

“The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by governments.”

MenStatesGovernmentEvilForceWorstMankindDangerousCivilizationWorshipEndureMenaceIncompetent
Book:Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War
Create image

“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.”

MenWarIndividualExistenceEnemyStruggleGreaterInfluenceLaborRegardProductivityWelfareDivisionCompetitorsJointsComradeUnifyingDivision Of LaborStruggle For Existence
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
Create image

“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.”

MenMeanImportantGovernmentActionLastsRememberEssentialsAskingPrisonThreatKillingSoldierViolentEmploymentFeaturesEnforcementResortsCompulsionPolicemenInterferenceDecreeHangmanPrison Guards
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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

“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.”

MenMeanAbleWishAbilityConditionsMastersMassCapitalismMajorityProfitEqualitySuperiorsInferiorsGiftedSuperioritySuperior ManEgalitarianism
Book:Money, method, and the market process: essays
Create image

“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.”

MenEndsStatesGovernmentPerfectViolenceImpulseImperfectionInnateEliminationRecourse
Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
Create image

“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.”

MenGovernmentActionPainSufferingIndividualCausesEffortMankindProductsActivityAchievementAimEvery ManSubstitutesSpontaneousAvoidingCoercionGreat AchievementInfliction
Book:The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method
Create image

“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
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