Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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

[E]conomic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics

The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market economy, are the consumers.

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

The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons.

It is the spirit of conquest.

If one rejects laissez faire on account of mans fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action.

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.

The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate. They misuse their power for the oppression of those whom they were expected to defend against oppression. The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.

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.

Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire.

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking.

Capitalism needs neither propaganda nor apostles.

Its achievements speak for themselves. Capitalism delivers the goods.

The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is no third solution.

Economic progress is the work of the savers, who accumulate capital, and of the entrepreneurs, who turn capital to new uses.

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

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

The entrepreneur profits to the extent he has succeeded in serving the consumers better than other people have done.

Laissez faire does not mean: let soulless mechanical forces operate.

It means: let individuals choose how they want to cooperate in the social division of labor and let them determine what the entrepreneurs should produce.

The only source from which an entrepreneurs profits stem is his ability to anticipate better than other people the future demand of the consumers.

The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs.

It is vain to fight totalitarianism by adopting totalitarian methods.

Freedom can only be won by men unconditionally committed to the principles of freedom. The first requisite for a better social order is the return to unrestricted freedom of thought and speech.

Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop.

Capitalism and socialism are two distinct patterns of social organization.

Private control of the means of production and public control are contradictory notions and not merely contrary notions. There is no such thing as a mixed economy, a system that would stand midway between capitalism and socialism.

The market is a democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote.

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.

If some peoples pretend that history or geography gives them the right to subjugate other races, nations, or peoples, there can be no peace.

Every socialist is a disguised dictator.

The prerequisite for more economic equality in the world is industrialization.

And this is possible only through increased capital investment, increased capital accumulation.

Sovereignty must not be used for inflicting harm on anyone, whether citizen or foreigner.

Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism;

it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

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!

Capitalism means free enterprise, sovereignty of the consumers in economic matters, and sovereignty of the voters in political matters. Socialism means full government control of every sphere of the individuals life and the unrestricted supremacy of the government in its capacity as central board of production management.

Capitalism gave the world what it needed, a higher standard of living for a steadily increasing number of people.

The idea that political freedom can be preserved in the absence of economic freedom, and vice versa, is an illusion. Political freedom is the corollary of economic freedom.

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

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

The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.

If the members of parliament no longer consider themselves mandatories of the taxpayers but deputies of those receiving salaries, wages, subsidies, doles, and other benefits from the treasury, democracy is done for.

Under capitalism everybody is the architect of his own fortune.

Depression is the aftermath of credit expansion.

Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions.

Society has arisen out of the works of peace;

the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things.

Progressive taxation of income and profits means that precisely those parts of the income which people would have saved and invested are taxed away

It is certain that many intellectuals envy the higher income of prosperous businessmen and that these feelings drive them toward socialism. They believe that the authorities of a socialist commonwealth would pay them higher salaries than those that they earn under capitalism.

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.

What generates war is the economic philosophy of nationalism: embargoes, trade and foreign exchange controls, monetary devaluation, etc. The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.

All rational action is in the first place individual action.

Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.

The philosophy underlying the system of progressive taxation is that the income and wealth of the well-to-do classes can be freely tapped. What the advocates of these tax rates fail to realize is that the greater part of the incomes taxed away would not have been consumed but saved and invested.

Profits are the driving force of the market economy.

The greater the profits, the better the needs of the consumers are supplied... He who serves the public best, makes the highest profits.