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Economics Quotes

“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”

GovernmentEffortLibertyEconomicAmountWasteEconomicsLibertarianPlanningEnormousDelusionLibertarianismSlothGovernment SpendingInefficiencyGovernment Waste
Book:Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government
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“Liberalism and capitalism address themselves to the cool, well-balanced mind. They proceed by strict logic, eliminating any appeal to the emotions. Socialism, on the contrary, works on the emotions, tries to violate logical considerations by rousing a sense of personal interest and to stifle the voice of reason by awakening primitive instincts.”

TryingMindWellsReasonVoiceInterestEmotionLibertyEconomicCapitalismEconomicsLogicInstinctAwakeningContrarySocialismAppealsLiberalismAddressesConsiderationLogicalBalancedPrimitiveStrictEliminatingPersonal InterestVoice Of Reason
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
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“The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs.”

MenCountryCommonNumbersLibertyHigherStandardsEconomicsGoldEntrepreneurLibertarianWealthyLibertarianismStandards Of LivingCommon ManGreat Libertarian
Book:Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses
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“Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

GovernmentFreedomLibertyCitizensMouthsCapitalismEconomicsLaborLibertarianSocialismBreadFoundersFoundingGoverningFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyPrivate PropertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveBill Of RightsUs Founding FathersForefathersAmerican GovernmentLimiting GovernmentFounding AmericaLibertarian PartyEconomic FreedomInauguralConstitutional RightsFrugalLimited FreedomInaugural AddressGovernment RegulationFounding Fathers DemocracyRestrainingLimiting FreedomDistribution Of WealthConstitutional GovernmentFree Market CapitalismTyranny Founding FathersRedistribution Of WealthDemocracy In AmericaGovernment And PoliticsNot VotingGovernment PoliticsFuture Of AmericaVoting Founding FathersRobber Baron
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“The sort of dependence that results from exchange, i.e., from commercial transactions, is a reciprocal dependence. We cannot be dependent upon a foreigner without his being dependent on us. Now, this is what constitutes the very essence of society. To sever natural interrelations is not to make oneself independent, but to isolate oneself completely.”

NaturalResultsLibertyEconomicEconomicsEssenceIndependentOneselfDependentDependenceForeignersTransactionsReciprocal
Author:Frederic Bastiat
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“...the statement, "The purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign," is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to be stated that the purpose of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is injustice, instead of justice, that has an existence of its own. Justice is achieved only when injustice is absent.”

FactsLawPurposeCausesJusticeExistenceLibertyEconomicOughtEconomicsInjusticeStatementsAccurateReignAbsent
Book:The Law
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“We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”

IfsWantPersonsStatesLibertyEconomicObjectsEconomicsRaisesLibertarianGrain
Book:The Law
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“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all . . . . It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain”

IfsWantPersonsIdeasStatesDoneGovernmentResultsLibertyEconomicObjectsSpringEconomicsRaisesAncientLibertarianSocialismDistinctionGrainLimited GovernmentBeing DoneLibertarian PartyGovernment And Society
Book:The Law
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“But we assure the socialists that we repudiate only forced organization, not natural organization. We repudiate the forms of association that are forced upon us, not free association. We repudiate forced fraternity, not true fraternity. We repudiate the artificial unity that does nothing more than deprive persons of individual responsibility. We do not repudiate the natural unity of mankind under Providence.”

PersonsDoeFormIndividualNaturalResponsibilityLibertyEconomicMankindEconomicsOrganizationUnityAssociationArtificialProvidenceFraternityIndividual Responsibility
Author:Frederic Bastiat
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“It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property, since they pre-exist, and his work is only to secure them from injury. It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our sentiments, our works, our exchanges, our gifts, our enjoyments. Its mission is to prevent the rights of one from interfering with those of another, in any one of these things.”

PersonsIdeasLawLibertyRightsEconomicConscienceEconomicsAbsolutesPropertyMissionsSecureEnjoymentInjurySentimentsInterfereLegislatorsAbsolute Power
Book:The Law
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“The direction of all economic affairs is in the market society a task of the entrepreneurs. Theirs is the control of production. They are at the helm and steer the ship. A superficial observer would believe that they are supreme. But they are not. They are bound to obey unconditionally the captain's orders.”

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Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“To the grumbler who complains about the unfairness of the market system only one piece of advice can be given: If you want to acquire wealth, then try to satisfy the public by offering them something that is cheaper or which they like better....Equality under the law gives you the power to challenge every millionaire.”

IfsWantGivingTryingLawGivenChallengesWealthLibertyPiecesEconomicAdviceEconomicsComplainingAcquireOfferingMillionaireCheaperOne PieceUnfairnessEquality Under The Law
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“The "progressives" who today masquerade as "liberals" may rant against "fascism"; yet it is their policy that paves the way for Hitlerism. Nothing could have been more helpful to the success of the National-Socialist (Nazi) movement than the methods used by the "progressives," denouncing Nazism as a party serving the interests of "capital." The German workers knew this tactic too well to be deceived by it again.”

WayWellsMayHas BeensTodayUsedInterestPartyLibertyEconomicPolicyMovementEconomicsMethodWorkersHelpfulServingFascismSocialistNaziTacticsCould Have BeenDeceivedNazismRantMasquerade
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“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
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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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“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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“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”

ShouldMeanResultsLibertyEconomicInvolvedEconomicsCrisisFinalsCreditAlternativesCollapseCurrencyExpansionAvoidingCatastropheAbandonment
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“The foundation of any and every civilization, including our own, is private ownership of the means of production. Whoever wishes to criticize modern civilization, therefore, begins with private property.”

MeanWishLibertyEconomicModernCivilizationEconomicsFoundationPropertyIncludingProductionsCriticizeOwnershipPrivate PropertyModern Civilization
Book:The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism
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“Human envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as 'the most anti-social and evil of all passions.'”

HumansPassionEvilSocialJusticeLibertyEconomicConditionsSourceDemandEssentialsEconomicsTreatsSocial JusticeEnvyPreservationDiscontentSanctionsFree SocietyMillsCountenanceAnti Social
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“Capitalism is not only a better form of organizing human activity than any deliberate design, any attempt to organize it to satisfy particular preferences, to aim at what people regard as beautiful or pleasant order, but it is also the indispensable condition for just keeping that population alive which exists already in the world. I regard the preservation of what is known as the capitalist system, of the system of free markets and the private ownership of the means of production, as an essential condition of the very survival of mankind.”

PeopleWorldHumansMeanBeautifulFormOrderKnownLibertyAliveEconomicConditionsMankindDesignParticularActivityEssentialsSurvivalCapitalismEconomicsRegardAimPopulationProductionsPleasantCapitalistOwnershipOrganizeIndispensablePreservationPreferenceFree MarketDeliberateHuman Activity
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.”

ProblemHandsUsedGivenLibertyFeetEconomicIndustryCapitalismEconomicsStrongerMethodSolveTiesDeclaringHands And Feet
Book:The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought
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