Socialism Quotes by Ludwig von Mises

Almost all the fathers of socialism were members of the upper middle class or of the professions.

— Ludwig von Mises

Socialism is the renunciation of rational economy.

— Ludwig von Mises

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

— Ludwig von Mises

The system that would stand midway between capitalism and socialism.

— Ludwig von Mises

Aggressors cannot wage total war without introducing Socialism.

— Ludwig von Mises

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

— Ludwig von Mises

The first socialists were the intellectuals; they, and not the masses, are the backbone of Socialism.

— Ludwig von Mises

For it is an essential difference between capitalist and socialist production that under capitalism men provide for themselves, while under Socialism they…

— Ludwig von Mises

Socialism and interventionism. Both have in common the goal of subordinating the individual unconditionally to the state.

— Ludwig von Mises

“Socialism is the expression of the principle of violence crying from the workers' soul, just as Imperialism is the principle of violence…

— 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

Daily experience proves clearly to everybody but the most bigoted fanatics of socialism that governmental management is inefficient and wasteful.

— Ludwig von Mises

The word "Capitalism" expresses, for our age, the sum of all evil. Even the opponents of Socialism are dominated by socialist ideas.

— Ludwig von Mises

German Marxian's coined the dictum: If socialism is against human nature, then human nature must be changed.

— Ludwig von Mises

In the socialist commonwealth every economic change becomes an undertaking whose success can be neither appraised in advance nor later retrospectively determined.…

— Ludwig von Mises

Capitalism means free enterprise, sovereignty of the consumers in economic matters, and sovereignty of the voters in political matters. Socialism means full…

— Ludwig von Mises

The desire for an increase of wealth can be satisfied through exchange, which is the only method possible in a capitalist economy,…

— Ludwig von Mises

The salesman thanks the customer for patronizing his shop and asks him to come again. But the socialists say: Be grateful to…

— Ludwig von Mises

What pushes the masses into the camp of socialism is, even more than the illusion that socialism will make them richer, the…

— Ludwig von Mises

Once it has been perceived that the division of labour is the essence of society, nothing remains of the antithesis between individual…

— Ludwig von Mises

Marx and Engels openly declared that the progressive income tax and the death tax are 'economically untenable' and that they advocated them…

— Ludwig von Mises

It is certain that many intellectuals envy the higher income of prosperous businessmen and that these feelings drive them toward socialism. They…

— 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

“All Nazi champions insist again and again that Marxism and Bolshevism are the quintessence of the Jewish mind, and that it is…

— 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

“Granted, many of them replied, that socialism may not result in riches for all but rather in a smaller production of wealth;…

— Ludwig von Mises

Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in…

— Ludwig von Mises

“Is precisely in market dealings that market prices are formed for all kinds of goods and services, which will be taken as…

— Ludwig von Mises

The main characteristic of collectivism is that it does not take notice of the individual's will and moral self-determination. In the light…

— Ludwig von Mises

Interventionism cannot be considered as an economic system destined to stay. It is a method for the transformation of capitalism into socialism…

— Ludwig von Mises

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

— Ludwig von Mises

In the bureaucratic machine of socialism the way toward promotion is not achievement but the favor of the superiors.

— Ludwig von Mises

Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy.

— Ludwig von Mises

“It suffices here to say that the planned economy which the advocates of dictatorship wish to set up is precisely as socialistic…

— Ludwig von Mises

The masses favor socialism because they trust the socialist propaganda of the intellectuals. The intellectuals, not the populace, are molding public opinion.

— Ludwig von Mises

Not mythical material productive forces, but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs. What is needed to stop the trend…

— Ludwig von Mises

Socialism in Russia has not brought about an improvement in the conditions of the average man which can be compared with the…

— Ludwig von Mises

Inflation has always been an important resource of policies of war and revolution and why we also find it in the service…

— Ludwig von Mises

Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

— Ludwig von Mises

“Romanticism is man's revolt against reason, as well as against the condition under which nature has compelled him to live.”

— Ludwig von Mises