Best Economic Wisdom

3293 Economic quotes by 1725 unique authors

We cannot doubt that self-interest is the mainspring of human nature. It must be clearly understood that this word is used here to designate a… — Frederic Bastiat
This question of legal plunder must be settled once and for all, and there are only three ways to settle it: (1) The few plunder… — Frederic Bastiat
The sort of dependence that results from exchange, i.e., from commercial transactions, is a reciprocal dependence. We cannot be dependent upon a foreigner without his… — Frederic Bastiat
...the statement, "The purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign," is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to be stated that… — Frederic Bastiat
We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists… — Frederic Bastiat
Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object… — Frederic Bastiat
But we assure the socialists that we repudiate only forced organization, not natural organization. We repudiate the forms of association that are forced upon us,… — Frederic Bastiat
The plans differ; the planners are all alike... — Frederic Bastiat
It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property, since they pre-exist, and his work is only to secure… — Frederic Bastiat
It is indeed a singular thing that people wish to pass laws to nullify the disagreeable consequences that the law of responsibility entails. Will they… — Frederic Bastiat
And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun:… — Frederic Bastiat
There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a more alarming situation. — Frederic Bastiat
Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details. — Alexis de Tocqueville
I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the masses. I passionately… — Alexis de Tocqueville
The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim… — Lysander Spooner
Man, no doubt, owes many other moral duties to his fellow men; such as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care… — Lysander Spooner
We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a… — Mark Twain
The program of classical liberalism, condensed into a single word, would have to read: property. — Ludwig von Mises
No very deep knowledge of economics is usually needed for grasping the immediate effects of a measure; but the task of economics is to foretell… — Ludwig von Mises
Aggressors cannot wage total war without introducing Socialism. — Ludwig von Mises
As the science of economics...exploded the fallacies of every brand of utopianism, it was outlawed and stigmatized as unscientific. — Ludwig von Mises
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… — Ludwig von Mises
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
Not mythical material productive forces, but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs. What is needed to stop the trend toward socialism and… — 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 of economics — Ludwig von Mises

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