Quote

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

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
Build
Knowledge
Better
World
Indispensable
Historical

More quotes by Ludwig von Mises

Image
Economic control is not merely control of a sector of human life that can be separated from the rest it is the control of the means for all our ends.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Permanent mass unemployment destroys the moral foundations of the social order. The young people, who, having finished their training for work, are forced to remain idle, are the ferment out of which the most radical political movements are formed. In their ranks the soldiers of the coming revolutions are recruited.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
On the unhampered market there prevails an irresistible tendency to employ every factor of production for the best possible satisfaction of the most urgent needs of the consumers. If the government interfered with this process, it can only impair satisfaction it can never improve it.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Action is an attempt to substitute a more satisfactory state of affairs for a less satisfactory one. We call such a willfully induced alteration an exchange.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The first socialists were the intellectuals they, and not the masses, are the backbone of Socialism.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Taxes are necessary. But the system of discriminatory taxation universally accepted under the misleading name of progressive taxation of income and inheritance is not a mode of taxation. It is rather a mode of disguised expropriation of the successful capitalists and entrepreneurs.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
An essential point in the social philosophy of interventionism is the existence of an inexhaustible fund which can be squeezed forever. The whole system of interventionism collapses when the fountain is drained off: The Santa Clause principle liquidates itself.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
...this remedy is the power of the citizens they have to prevent the establishment of such an autocratic regime that arrogates to itself a higher wisdom than that of the average citizen. This is the fundamental difference between freedom and serfdom.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The entrepreneur profits to the extent he has succeeded in serving the consumers better than other people have done.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Planning other people's actions means to prevent them from planning for themselves, means to deprive them of their essentially human quality, means enslaving them.
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 philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of the social nexus.
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
The salesman thanks the customer for patronizing his shop and asks him to come again. But the socialists say: Be grateful to Hitler, render thanks to Stalin be nice and submissive, then the great man will be kind to you later too.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
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.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
Only to bureaucrats can the idea occur that establishing new offices, promulgating new decrees, and increasing the number of government employees alone can be described as positive and beneficial measures.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The masses, in their capacity as consumers, ultimately determine everybody's revenues and wealth.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
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.
Ludwig von Mises
Image
It is not enough for [the investor] to know all the factors that can possibly contribute to the determination of a future event. In order to anticipate correctly they must also anticipate correctly the quantity as it were of each factor's contribution and the instant at which its contribution will become effective.
Ludwig von Mises