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. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The history of mankind is the history of ideas. For it is ideas, theories, and doctrines that guide human action, determine the ultimate ends men aim at, and the choice of the means employed for the attainment of these ends. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
If the members of parliament no longer consider themselves mandatories of the taxpayers but deputies of those receiving salaries, wages, subsidies, doles, and other… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Changes in human conditions are brought about by the pioneering of the cleverest and most energetic men. They take the lead and the rest… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
During the 2300 years since Plato, very little opposition has been registered to his ideas. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
“How little one is justified in speaking in this connection of "optimism" and "pessimism" and how much the characterization of liberalism as "optimistic" aims… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Every step by which an individual substitutes concerted action for isolated action results in an immediate and recognizable improvement in his conditions. The advantages… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The capitalistic social order, therefore, is an economic democracy in the strictest sense of the word. In the last analysis, all decisions are dependent… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in our sense… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
There is no kind of freedom and liberty other than the kind which the market economy brings about. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
What counts alone is the innovator, the dissenter, the harbinger of things unheard of, the man who rejects the traditional standards and aims at… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
In reality no food is valued solely for its nutritive power and no garment or house solely for the protection it affords against cold… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
All this talk: the state should do this or that, ultimately means: the police should force consumers to behave otherwise than they would behave… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The most successful businessmen were often uneducated when measured by the scholastic standards of the teaching profession. But they were equal to their social… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Two hundred years ago, before the advent of capitalism, a man's social status was fixed from the beginning to the end of his life;… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Facts per se can neither prove nor refute anything. Everything is decided by the interpretation and explanation of the facts, by the ideas and… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
