Top 51 Ludwig von Mises Quotes (ECONOMICS)

Top 9 Most Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes (BEST)

“The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau.”
Ludwig von Mises

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

Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, masters, and bachelors of the most renowned universities.

All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts. — All rational **action** is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.

“Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping toward destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interest of everyone hangs on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.”
Ludwig von Mises

He who is unfit to serve his fellow citizens wants to rule them.

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

Peace and not war is the father of all things. — **Peace** and not war is the father of all things.

He who only wishes and hopes does not interfere actively with the course of events and with the shaping of his own destiny. — He who only wishes and **hopes** does not interfere actively with the course of events and with the shaping of his own **destiny**.

4 Ludwig von Mises Quotes on Freedom & Liberty

Liberty is meaningless if it is only the liberty to agree with those in power.

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

Liberty is always freedom from the government.

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

5 Ludwig von Mises Quotes on Socialism

“The Marxians love of democratic institutions was a stratagem only, a pious fraud for the deception of the masses. Within a socialist community there is no room left for freedom.”
Ludwig von Mises

Every socialist is a disguised dictator.

Socialism is an alternative to capitalism as potassium cyanide is an alternative to water.

“Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build, it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created.”
Ludwig von Mises

The worst thing that can happen to a socialist is to have his country ruled by socialists who are not his friends.

2 Ludwig von Mises Quotes on Innovation

Innovation is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public. — **Innovation** is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public.

Innovators and creative geniuses cannot be reared in schools. They are precisely the men who defy what the school has taught them. — Innovators and creative **geniuses** cannot be reared in schools. They are precisely the men who defy what the school has taught them.

8 Thought-provoking Ludwig von Mises Quotes About Governments

“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.”
Ludwig von Mises

The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.

“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

Government is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper, and make it worthless by applying ink.

“The alcoholic and the drug addict harm only themselves by their behavior; the person who violates the rules of morality governing mans life in society harms not only himself, but everyone.”
Ludwig von Mises

Economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics.

“Nobody ever recommended a dictatorship aiming at ends other than those he himself approved. He who advocates dictatorship always advocates the unrestricted rule of his own will.”
Ludwig von Mises

The average man is both better informed and less corruptible in the decisions he makes as a consumer than as a voter at political elections.

4 Ludwig von Mises Quotes on Inflation

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
Ludwig von Mises

The advocates of public control cannot do without inflation. They need it in order to finance their policy of reckless spending and of lavishly subsidizing and bribing the voters. — The advocates of public control cannot do without **inflation**. They need it in order to finance their policy of reckless spending and of lavishly subsidizing and bribing the voters.

If one regards inflation as an evil, then one has to stop inflating. One has to balance the budget of the government.

Inflation is the fiscal complement of statism and arbitrary government. It is a cog in the complex of policies and institutions which gradually lead toward totalitarianism.

3 Ludwig von Mises Quotes About Life and Civilization

“Under capitalism the common man enjoys amenities which in ages gone by were unknown and therefore inaccessible even to the richest people. But, of course, these motorcars, television sets and refrigerators do not make a man happy. In the instant in which he acquires them, he may feel happier than he did before. But as soon as some of his wishes are satisfied, new wishes spring up. Such is human nature.”
Ludwig von Mises

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.

The masses do not like those who surpass them in any regard. The average man envies and hates those who are different.

11 Ludwig von Mises Quotes on War & Peace

Whoever wants peace among nations must seek to limit the state and its influence most strictly.

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

War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings. — War prosperity is like the **prosperity** that an earthquake or a plague brings.

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

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.

The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war. — The **philosophy** of protectionism is a philosophy of war.

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

Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace.

Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being.

Men are fighting… because they are convinced that the extermination of adversaries is the only means of promoting their own well-being.

War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods.

5 Ludwig von Mises Quotes that Will Make You Think

“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.”
Ludwig von Mises