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Some think that they will exercise power for the general good, but that is what all those with power have believed. Power is evil in itself, regardless of who exercises it.
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
Believed
General
Exercise
Evil
Power
Good
Think
Exercises
Thinking
Regardless
More quotes by Ludwig von Mises
Anarchism misunderstands the real nature of man. It would be practicable only in a world of angels and saints
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Only stilted pedants can conceive the idea that there are absolute norms to tell what is beautiful and what is not. They try to derive from the works of the past a code of rules with which, as they fancy, the writers and artists of the future should comply. But the genius does not cooperate with the pundit.
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The interventionist policy (big government) provides thousands and thousands of people with safe, placid, and not too strenuous jobs at the expense of the rest of society.
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The productivity of social cooperation surpasses in every respect the sum total of the production of isolated individuals.
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There is no other planning for freedom and general welfare than to let the market system work.
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Business is a means- the only means- to increase the quantity of goods available for preserving life and rendering it more agreeable.
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The government pretends to be endowed with the mystical power to accord favors out of an inexhaustible horn of plenty. It is both omniscient and omnipotent. It can by a magic wand create happiness and abundance. The truth is the government cannot give if it does not take from somebody.
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In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant's feet. Then the oppressed many will rise in rebellion and overthrow their masters.
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The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market economy, are the consumers.
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The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is 'left' and what is 'right'? Why should Hitler be 'right' and Stalin, his temporary friend, be 'left'? Who is 'reactionary' and who is 'progressive'? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended.
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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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The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest.
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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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Capitalism gave the world what it needed, a higher standard of living for a steadily increasing number of people.
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The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.
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Science does not give us absolute and final certainty. It only gives us assurance within the limits of our mental abilities and the prevailing state of scientific thought.
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A higher standard of living also brings about a higher standard of culture and civilization.
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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.
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Only the naive inflationist's could believe that government could enrich mankind through fiat money.
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The philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of the social nexus.
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