The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The consumers suffer when the laws of the country prevent the most efficient entrepreneurs from expanding the sphere of their activities. What… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
“Every step which leads from capitalism toward planning is necessarily a step nearer to absolutism and dictatorship.” — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
In the land of the lotus-eaters there is no action. Action arises only from need, from dissatisfaction. It is purposeful striving towards… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Western civilization is based upon the libertarian principle, and all its achievements are the results of the action of free men. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
He who disdains the fall in infant mortality and the gradual disappearance of famines and plagues may cast the first stone upon… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
[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 Copy Share Image
“If any of the socialist chiefs had tried to earn his living by selling hot dogs, he would have learned something about… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The vigorous man industriously striving for the improvement of his condition acts neither more nor less than the lethargic man who sluggishly… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Public works are not accomplished by the miraculous power of a magic wand. They are paid for by funds taken away from… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents.... A lasting… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
What pays under capitalism is satisfying the common man, the customer. The more people you satisfy, the better for you. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Whoever prefers life to death, happiness to suffering, well-being to misery must defend without compromise private ownership in the means of production. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Depressions and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market but by government interference in the economy. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The program of liberalism if condensed into a single word, would have to read: property, that is, private ownership of the means… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The public firm can nowhere maintain itself in free competition with the private firm; it is possible today only where it has… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The state is essentially an apparatus of compulsion and coercion. The characteristic feature of its activities is to compel people through the… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
Action is an attempt to substitute a more satisfactory state of affairs for a less satisfactory one. We call such a willfully… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
“Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
This, then, is freedom in the external life of man-that he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows. — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
“As regards the social apparatus of repression and coercion, the government, there cannot be any question of freedom. Government is essentially the… — Ludwig von Mises Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“Socialism is an alternative to capitalism as potassium cyanide is an alternative to water.” — 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