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Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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“A new type of superstition has got hold of people's minds, the worship of the state. People demand the exercise of the methods of coercion and compulsion, of violence and threat. Woe to anybody who does not bend his knee to the fashionable idols!”

PeopleMindDoeStatesViolenceTypeExerciseDemandWorshipMethodThreatKneesIdolsSuperstitionsWoeCompulsionCoercionFashionable
Book:Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War
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“Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will. It allows other forces to arise side by side with and in opposition to political power. It thus becomes the basis of all those activities that are free from violent interference on the part of the state. It is the soil in which the seeds of freedom are nurtured and in which the autonomy of the individual and ultimately all intellectual and material progress are rooted.”

StatesPoliticalIndividualForceSidesProgressMaterialsActivityLimitsIntellectualBasesPropertySeedsViolentAriseOperationsSoilOppositionSpheresRootedAutonomyInterferencePrivate PropertyPolitical Power
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“The financial history of the last century shows a steady increase in the amount of public indebtedness. Nobody believes that the states will eternally drag the burden of these interest payments. It is obvious that sooner or later all these debts will be liquidated in some way or other, but certainly not by payment of interest and principal according to the terms of the contract.”

WayBelieveStatesShowsLastsTermInterestCenturyAmountIncreaseFinancialObviousBurdenDebtContractsSteadyDragSooner Or LaterPrincipalPaymentIndebtedness
Book:Human Action
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“The state is the only institution entitled to apply coercion and compulsion and to inflict harm upon individuals. This tremendous power cannot be abandoned to the discretion of some men, however competent and clever they may deem themselves. It is necessary to restrict its application. This is the task of the laws.”

MenMayStatesLawIndividualTasksInstitutionsHarmCleverApplicationAbandonedEntitledCompulsionCoercionCompetentDiscretion
Book:Bureaucracy
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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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“All varieties of interference with the market phenomena not only fail to achieve the ends aimed at by their authors and supporters, but bring about a state of affairs which - from the point of view of their authors and advocates valuations - is less desirable than the previous state of affairs which they were designed to alter.”

EndsStatesViewsLibertyFailingEconomicAchieveEconomicsAffairPoint Of ViewVarietySupporterDesirableInterferenceValuation
Book:Bureaucracy
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“The state is essentially an apparatus of compulsion and coercion. The characteristic feature of its activities is to compel people through the application or the threat of force to behave otherwise than they would like to behave.”

PeopleStatesForceLibertyActivityThreatLibertarianFeaturesBehaveCharacteristicsApplicationLibertarianismCompulsionCoercion
Book:Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War
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“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
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“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
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“As soon as we surrender the principle that the state should not interfere in any questions touching on the individuals mode of life, we end by regulating and restricting the latter down to the smallest details.”

ShouldEndsStatesIndividualPrinciplesDetailsSurrenderLatterTouchingSmallestInterfere
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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“State interference in economic life, which calls itself economic policy, has done nothing but destroy economic life. Prohibitions and regulations have by their general obstructive tendency fostered the growth of the spirit of wastefulness.”

StatesDoneSpiritGrowthEconomicPolicyTendenciesRegulationInterferenceProhibitionEconomic PolicyWastefulness
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“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
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“There is, in fact, only one solution: the state, the government, the laws must not in any way concern themselves with schooling or education. Public funds must not be used for such purposes. The rearing and instruction of youth must be left entirely to parents and to private associations and institutions”

WayStatesFactsGovernmentLawUsedPurposeLeftParentYouthSolutionsConcernInstitutionsFundAssociationInstructionSchooling
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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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.”

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