Quote

Man is not, like the animals, an obsequious puppet of instincts and sensual impulses. Man has the power to suppress instinctive desires, he has a will of his own, he chooses between incompatible ends.

Ludwig von Mises

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Animals
Puppets
Animal
Impulses
Desire
Chooses
Ends
Sensual
Obsequious
Power
Instincts
Puppet
Men
Impulse
Incompatible
Like
Desires
Instinctive
Instinct
Suppress

More quotes by Ludwig von Mises

Image
Marx and Engels openly declared that the progressive income tax and the death tax are 'economically untenable' and that they advocated them only because 'they necessitate further inroads' upon the capitalist system and are 'unavoidable' as a means of bringing about socialism.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
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.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The masses, in their capacity as consumers, ultimately determine everybody's revenues and wealth.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The history of mankind is the history of ideas.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Experience shows that nothing is operated with less economy and with more waste of labor and material of every kind than public services and undertakings. Private enterprise on the other hand naturally induces the owner to work with the greatest economy in his own interest.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Capitalists have the tendency to move toward those countries in which there is plenty of labor available and at which labor is reasonable. And by the fact that they bring capital into these countries, they bring about a trend toward higher wage rates.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
It is impossible to understand the history of economic thought if one does not pay attention to the fact that economics as such is a challenge to the conceit of those in power.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
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.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
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.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The genuine history of mankind is the history of ideas. It is ideas that distinguish man from all other beings. Ideas engender social institutions, political changes, technologi- cal methods of production, and all that is called economic conditions.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Nothing, however, is as ill founded as the assertion of the alleged equality of all members of the human race.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The market and its inescapable law are supreme.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
He who serves the public best, makes the highest profits.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Progress of any kind is always at variance with the old and established ideas and therefore with the codes inspired by them. Every step of progress is a change involving heavy risks.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Public opinion always wants easy money, that is, low interest rates.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Nobody is in a position to decree what should make a fellow man happier.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
There is no other planning for freedom and general welfare than to let the market system work.
Ludwig von Mises