Keynes did not teach us how to perform the miracle of turning a stone into bread, but the not at all miraculous procedure of eating the seed corn. Ludwig von Mises More Quotes by Ludwig von Mises More Quotes From Ludwig von Mises Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty. Government is a guarantor of liberty and is compatible with liberty only if its range is adequately restricted to the preservation of economic freedom. Where there is no market economy, the best-intentioned provisions of constitutions and laws remain a dead letter. Ludwig von Mises governmentlawmean All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts. Ludwig von Mises actionfirststhinking All this talk: the state should do this or that, ultimately means: the police should force consumers to behave otherwise than they would behave spontaneously. Ludwig von Mises policestatesmean The riches of the rich are not the cause of the poverty of anybody; the process that makes some people rich is, on the contrary, the corollary of the process that improves many peoples want satisfaction. The entrepreneurs, the capitalists and the technologists prosper as far as they succeed in best supplying the consumers. Ludwig von Mises entrepreneurwantpeople The real bosses in the capitalist system of market economy are the consumers. They by their buying and by their abstention from buying decide who should own the capital and run the plants. They determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. Their attitudes result either in profit or in loss for the enterpriser. They make poor men rich and rich men poor. They are no easy bosses. Ludwig von Mises realrunningattitude In a game there are winners and losers. But a business deal is always advantageous for both parties. If both the buyer and the seller were not to consider the transaction as the most advantageous action they could choose under the prevailing conditions, they would not enter into the deal. Ludwig von Mises business-dealspartygames Welfare policies never attain those - allegedly beneficial - ends which the government and the self-styled progressives who advocated them wanted to attain, but - on the contrary - bring about a state of affairs which - from the very point of view of the government and its supporters - is even more unsatisfactory than the previous state of affairs they wanted to 'improve.' Ludwig von Mises governmentselfviews The interventionists do not approach the study of economic matters with scientific disinterestedness. Most of them are driven by an envious resentment against those whose incomes are larger than their own. This bias makes it impossible for them to see things as they really are. For them the main thing is not to improve the conditions of the masses, but to harm the entrepreneurs and capitalists even if this policy victimizes the immense majority of the people. Ludwig von Mises entrepreneurlibertypeople The fact is that, under a capitalistic system, the ultimate bosses are the consumers. The sovereign is not the state, it is the people. Ludwig von Mises bossfactspeople 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. Ludwig von Mises governmentdoegiving The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs. Ludwig von Mises numbersmencountry The only source from which an entrepreneurs profits stem is his ability to anticipate better than other people the future demand of the consumers. Ludwig von Mises demandentrepreneurpeople A new type of superstition has got hold of people's minds, the worship of the state. People demand the exercise of the methods of coercion and compulsion, of violence and threat. Woe to anybody who does not bend his knee to the fashionable idols! Ludwig von Mises idolsexercisepeople A higher standard of living also brings about a higher standard of culture and civilization. Ludwig von Mises standardscivilizationculture 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. Ludwig von Mises challengesdoeattention History does not provide any example of capital accumulation brought about by a government. As far as governments invested in the construction of roads, railroads, and other useful public works, the capital needed was provided by the savings of individual citizens and borrowed by the government. Ludwig von Mises governmentexampledoe 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. Ludwig von Mises evilexercisethinking Credit expansion can bring about a temporary boom. But such a fictitious prosperity must end in a general depression of trade, a slump. Ludwig von Mises slumpsexpansioncredit The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by governments. Ludwig von Mises evilmencivilization The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it. Ludwig von Mises criteriaacknowledgetruth
