Quotes from Ludwig von Mises

The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.

People do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because this best serves their own interests.

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.

Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire.

The masses favor socialism because they trust the socialist propaganda of the intellectuals. The intellectuals, not the populace, are molding public opinion.

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

The truth is that the government cannot give if it does not take from somebody...It is not in the power of the government to make everybody more prosperous.

The meaning of economic freedom is this: that the individual is in a position to choose the way in which he wants to integrate himself into the totality of society.

Historical knowledge is indispensable for those who want to build a better world

Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Public opinion always wants easy money, that is, low interest rates.

The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest.

Sovereignty must not be used for inflicting harm on anyone, whether citizen or foreigner.

Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things.

War...is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror.

It is merely a metaphor to call competition competitive war, or simply, war. The function of battle is destruction; of competition, construction.

Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being.

The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.

Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business.

Peace and not war is the father of all things.

Men are fighting one another because they are convinced that the extermination and liquidation of adversaries is the only means of promoting their own well-being.

Only one thing can conquer war - that attitude of mind which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation.

No matter how efficient school training may be, it would only produce stagnation, orthodoxy, and rigid pedantry if there were no uncommon men pushing forward beyond the wisdom of their tutors.