Quotes from Ludwig von Mises

Every extension of the functions and power of the State beyond its primary duty of maintaining peace and justice should be scrutinized with jealous vigilance.

The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.

What generates war is the economic philosophy of nationalism: embargoes, trade and foreign exchange controls, monetary devaluation, etc. The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.

German Marxian's coined the dictum: If socialism is against human nature, then human nature must be changed.

The aim of the popularization of economic studies is not to make every man an economist. The idea is to equip the citizen for his civic functions in community life.

The philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of the social nexus.

Every socialist is a disguised dictator.

Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

The mixing of politics and business not only is detrimental to politics, as is frequently observed, but even much more so to business.

The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.

Liberty is meaningless if it is only the liberty to agree with those in power.

Some think that they will exercise power for the general good, but that is what all those with power have believed. Power is evil in itself, regardless of who exercises it.

If you increase the quantity of money, you bring about the lowering of the purchasing power of the monetary unit.

It is impossible to understand the history of economic thought if one does not pay attention to the fact that economics as such is a challenge to the conceit of those in power.

The most important thing to remember is that inflation is not an act of God, that inflation is not a catastrophe of the elements or a disease that comes like the plague. Inflation is a policy.

If it is unnecessary to adjust the amount of expenditure to the means available, there is no limit to the spending of the great god State.

The boom is called good business, prosperity, and upswing. Its unavoidable aftermath, the readjustment of conditions to the real data of the market, is called crisis, slump, bad business, depression.

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.

Depressions and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market but by government interference in the economy.

Liberty is always freedom from the government.

Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions.

The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.

The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion.

Government is essentially the negation of liberty.