Government Quotes by Ludwig von Mises

Liberty is always freedom from the government.

— Ludwig von Mises

Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer.

— Ludwig von Mises

The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is no third solution.

— Ludwig von Mises

The tow pillars of democratic government are the primacy of the law and the budget.

— Ludwig von Mises

Government is an apparatus of compulsion and coercion.

— Ludwig von Mises

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

— Ludwig von Mises

You call it a 'loophole' when the government still allows you some freedom.

— Ludwig von Mises

Government is essentially the negation of liberty.

— Ludwig von Mises

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

— Ludwig von Mises

In spite of the anticapitalistic policies of all governments and of almost all political parties, the capitalist mode of production

— Ludwig von Mises

If one rejects laissez faire on account of mans fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every…

— Ludwig von Mises

How pale is the art of sorcerers, witches, and conjurors when compared with that of the government's Treasury Department!

— Ludwig von Mises

The government and its chiefs do not have the powers of the mythical Santa Claus. They cannot spend except by taking out…

— Ludwig von Mises

[E]conomic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws…

— Ludwig von Mises

If the government objects to monopoly prices for new inventions, it should stop granting patents.

— Ludwig von Mises

Seen from the point of view of the particular group interests of the bureaucrats, every measure that makes the government's payroll swell…

— Ludwig von Mises

There is no use in deceiving ourselves. American public opinion rejects the market economy, the capitalistic free enterprise system that provided the…

— Ludwig von Mises

The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of…

— Ludwig von Mises

History does not provide any example of capital accumulation brought about by a government. As far as governments invested in the construction…

— Ludwig von Mises

...this remedy is the power of the citizens; they have to prevent the establishment of such an autocratic regime that arrogates to…

— Ludwig von Mises

It is completely in accord with the etatist thinking prevalent everywhere today to consider a theory to be finally disposed of merely…

— Ludwig von Mises

Government and state can never be perfect because they owe their raison d'être to the imperfection of man and can attain their…

— Ludwig von Mises

The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of…

— Ludwig von Mises

Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty. Government is a guarantor of liberty and is…

— Ludwig von Mises

Credit expansion is the governments' foremost tool in their struggle against the market economy. In their hands it is the magic wand…

— Ludwig von Mises

“It is illogical to say, as many etatists do, that liberalism is hostile to or hates the state, because it is opposed…

— Ludwig von Mises

The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by…

— Ludwig von Mises

A famous, very often quoted phrase says: "That government is best, which governs least." I do not believe this to be a…

— Ludwig von Mises

If you give the government the right to determine the consumption of the human body, to determine whether one should smoke or…

— Ludwig von Mises

As the liberal sees it, the task of the state consists solely and exclusively in guaranteeing the protection of life, health, liberty,…

— Ludwig von Mises

The main propoganda trick of supporters of the allegedly "progressive" policy of government control is to blame capitalism for all that is…

— Ludwig von Mises

Government force is derived from the sum of the physical force each citizen could exert which by one citizen himself would be…

— Ludwig von Mises

All present-day governments are fanatically committed to an easy money policy.

— Ludwig von Mises

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

— Ludwig von Mises

What governments call international monetary cooperation is concerted action for the sake of credit expansion.

— Ludwig von Mises

What economic calculation requires is a monetary system whose functioning is not sabotaged by government interference.

— Ludwig von Mises

Inflation is the fiscal complement of statism and arbitrary government. It is a cog in the complex of policies and institutions which…

— Ludwig von Mises

Only the naive inflationist's could believe that government could enrich mankind through fiat money.

— Ludwig von Mises

“Every step which leads from capitalism toward planning is necessarily a step nearer to absolutism and dictatorship.”

— Ludwig von Mises

There can be no freedom in art and literature where the government determines who shall create them.

— Ludwig von Mises