Ludwig von Mises Quotes

Austrian-American economist (1881–1973)

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian economist, philosopher, author and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.

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Native Name: Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises

Alternative Names: Ludwig Heinrich Mises

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Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop.

Rhetorical bombast, music and song resound, banners wave, flowers and colors serve as symbols, and the leaders seek to attach their followers to their own person. Liberalism has nothing to do with all this. It has no party flower and no party color, no party song and no party idols, no symbols and no slogans. It has the substance and the arguments. These must lead it to victory.

He who only wishes and hopes does not interfere actively with the course of events and with the shaping of his own destiny.

The worst thing that can happen to a socialist is to have his country ruled by socialists who are not his friends.

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

It is an established fact that alcoholism, cocainism, and morphinism are deadly enemies of life, of health, and of the capacity for work and enjoyment... But this is far from demonstrating that the authorities must interpose to suppress these vices by commercial prohibitions...More harmful still than all these pleasures, many will say, is the reading of evil literature.

If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action.

A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses between life and death. A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

every type of socialism is unworkable because economic calculation is impossible in a socialist community.