Ludwig von Mises Quotes

Quotes about:

• Liberty is meaningless if it is only the liberty to agree with those in power.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Liberty, Agree, Ifs

  36 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Men, Garden, Blessing

  Ludwig von Mises (2016). “Bureaucracy: The Economist”, p.115, VM eBooks

  189 Copy quote

• The advocates of public control cannot do without inflation. They need it in order to finance their policy of reckless spending and of lavishly subsidizing and bribing the voters.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Order, Needs, Voters

  Ludwig von Mises (2013). “The Theory of Money and Credit”, p.436, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  15 Copy quote

• The most important thing to remember is that inflation is not an act of God, that inflation is not a catastrophe of the elements or a disease that comes like the plague. Inflation is a policy.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Important, Elements, Disease

  Ludwig Von Mises (2006). “Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow”, p.72, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  22 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Men, Civilization, Evil

  Ludwig Von Mises (1985). “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War”, Libertarian Press

  43 Copy quote

• The government and its chiefs do not have the powers of the mythical Santa Claus. They cannot spend except by taking out of the pockets of some people for the benefit of others.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, People, Pockets

  Ludwig Von Mises, Murray Newton Rothbard (1980). “Planning for freedom, and sixteen other essays and addresses”, Libertarian Press, Incorporated

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Mean, Liberty, Finals

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

  40 Copy quote

• Every socialist is a disguised dictator.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Dictator, Socialist

  44 Copy quote

• Innovators and creative geniuses cannot be reared in schools. They are precisely the men who defy what the school has taught them.

  Ludwig von Mises

  School, Men, Creative

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

  115 Copy quote

• The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion, policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners, had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Country, Order, Government

  8 Copy quote

• Government is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper, and make it worthless by applying ink.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Ink, Paper

  19 Copy quote

• Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build, it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Mean, Order, Years

  Ludwig von Mises (2016). “Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist”, p.414, VM eBooks

  63 Copy quote

• The truth is that most people lack the intellectual ability and courage to resist a popular movement, however pernicious and ill-considered.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Life, People, Intellectual

  Ludwig Von Mises (1947). “Planned Chaos”, p.81, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  14 Copy quote

• Depressions and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market but by government interference in the economy.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Liberty, Unemployment

  49 Copy quote

• The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Struggle, Public Opinion, Resistance

  Ludwig von Mises (1985). “Theory and History”, p.66, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  17 Copy quote

• Liberty is always freedom from the government.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Liberty

  28 Copy quote

• He who serves the public best, makes the highest profits.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Profit, Highest

  44 Copy quote

• Economics is not about things and tangible material objects; it is about men, their meanings and actions.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Motivational, Success, Men

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

  28 Copy quote
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  The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Peace, War, Government

  Ludwig Von Mises (1985). “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War”, Libertarian Press

  114 Copy quote

• Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Men, Liberty, Politics

  90 Copy quote

• Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Peace, War, Government

  Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Men, Two, Doe

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

  64 Copy quote

• Freedom really means the freedom to make mistakes.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Mistake, Mean, Making Mistakes

  Ludwig Von Mises (2006). “Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow”, p.22, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  11 Copy quote

• What mankind needs today is liberation from the rule of nonsensical slogans and a return to sound reasoning.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Sound, Needs, Today

  24 Copy quote

• Historical knowledge is indispensable for those who want to build a better world

  Ludwig von Mises

  Historical Knowledge, World, Want

  Ludwig Von Mises (1985). “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War”, Libertarian Press

  11 Copy quote

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