As the liberal sees it, the task of the state consists sole… - Ludwig von Mises

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As the liberal sees it, the task of the state consists solely
and exclusively in guaranteeing the protection of life, health, liberty, and private property against violent attacks. Everything that goes beyond this is an evil. A government that, instead of fulfilling its task, sought to go so far as actually to infringe on personal security of life and health, freedom, and property would, of course, be altogether bad.
Still, as Jacob Burckhardt says, power is evil in itself, no matter who exercises it.
It tends to corrupt those who wield it and leads to abuse. Not only absolute sovereigns and aristocrats, but the masses also, in whose hands democracy entrusts the supreme power of government, are only too easily inclined to excesses.

Ludwig von Mises

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About Ludwig von Mises

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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As the liberal sees it, the task of the state consists solely and exclusively in guaranteeing the protection of life, health, liberty, and private property against violent attacks. Everything that goes beyond this is an evil. A government that, instead of fulfilling its task, sought to go so far as actually to infringe on personal security of life and health, freedom, and property would, of course, be altogether bad.

Originators like Ludwig von Mises:

F.A. Hayek Milton Friedman Pyotr Kropotkin John Maynard Keynes Leonard Read

Additional quotes by Ludwig von Mises

All rational action is economic. All economic activity is rational action. All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.

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

All people, however fanatical they may be in their zeal to disparage and to fight capitalism, implicitly pay homage to it by passionately clamoring for the products it turns out

As the liberal sees it, the task of the state consists solely and exclusively in guaranteeing the protection of life, health, liberty, and private pr… - Ludwig von Mises

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