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This, then, is freedom in the external life of man-that he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows.

Ludwig von Mises

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Ludwig von Mises
Age: 92 †
Born: 1881
Born: September 29
Died: 1973
Died: October 10
Economist
Philosopher
University Teacher
Writer
Lemberg
Austria
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Mises
Men
Arbitrary
Life
External
Libertarian
Fellows
Independent
Liberty
Freedom
Power
Libertarianism

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Under a socialist mode of production all personal incentives which selfishness provides under capitalism are removed, and a premium is put upon laziness and negligence. Whereas in a capitalist society selfishness incites everyone to the utmost diligence, in a socialist society it makes for inertia and laxity.
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To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.
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How pale is the art of sorcerers, witches, and conjurors when compared with that of the government's Treasury Department!
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The history of mankind is the history of ideas.
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Big business always serve - directly or indirectly - the masses.
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Every specific tax, as well as the nation's whole tax system, becomes self-defeating above a certain height of the rates.
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Progressive taxation of income and profits means that precisely those parts of the income which people would have saved and invested are taxed away
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Capital does not 'beget profit' as Marx thought. The capital goods as such are dead things that in themselves do not accomplish anything. If they are utilized according to a good idea, profit results. If they are utilized according to a mistaken idea, no profit or losses result. It is the entrepreneurial decision that creates either profit or loss.
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The system that would stand midway between capitalism and socialism.
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There is simply no other choice than this: either to abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government. Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way.
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Under capitalism everybody provides for their own needs by serving others.
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What is a loophole? If the law does not punish a definite action or does not tax a definite thing, this is not a loophole. It is simply the law.
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No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology.
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The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.
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It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary.
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The egalitarian doctrine is manifestly contrary to all the facts established by biology and by history. Only fanatical partisans of this theory can contend that what distinguishes the genius from the dullard is entirely the effect of postnatal influences.
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Most of us have no sympathy with the rich idler who spends his life in pleasure without ever doing any work. But even he fulfills a function in the life of the social organism. He sets an example of luxury that awakens in the multitude a consciousness of new needs and gives industry the incentive to fulfill them.
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He who only wishes and hopes does not interfere actively with the course of events and with the shaping of his own destiny.
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Thoughts and ideas are not phantoms. They are real things. Although intangible and immaterial, they are factors in bringing about changes in the realm of tangible and material things.
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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.
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