What counts alone is the innovator, the dissenter, the harbinger of things unheard of, the man who rejects the traditional standards and aims at substituting new values and ideas for old ones. Ludwig von Mises More Quotes by Ludwig von Mises More Quotes From Ludwig von Mises The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty. Ludwig von Mises police political struggle What governments call international monetary cooperation is concerted action for the sake of credit expansion. Ludwig von Mises credit government sake Every innovation makes its appearance as a 'luxury' of the few well-to-do. After industry has become aware of it, the luxury then becomes a 'necessity' for all. Ludwig von Mises luxury innovation appearance The advocates of public control cannot do without inflation. They need it in order to finance their policy of reckless spending and of lavishly subsidizing and bribing the voters. Ludwig von Mises voters order needs History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents.... A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets. Ludwig von Mises money war order The causes of all panics, crashes and depressions can be summed up in only four words: the misuse of credit. Ludwig von Mises credit four causes It is the rule of law alone which hinders the rulers from turning themselves into the worst gangsters. Ludwig von Mises gangsters worst law Credit expansion is the governments' foremost tool in their struggle against the market economy. In their hands it is the magic wand designed to conjure away the scarcity of capital goods, to lower the rate of interest or to abolish it altogether, to finance lavish government spending, to expropriate the capitalists, to contrive everlasting booms, and to make everybody prosperous. Ludwig von Mises government struggle hands No private enterprise will ever fall prey to bureaucratic methods of management if it is operated with the sole aim of making profit. Ludwig von Mises prey management fall A citizen who casts his ballot without having to the best of his abilities studied as much economics as he can fails in his civic duties. Ludwig von Mises economics failing citizens Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy. Ludwig von Mises socialism political government Nobody ever recommended a dictatorship aiming at ends other than those he himself approved. He who advocates dictatorship always advocates the unrestricted rule of his own will Ludwig von Mises dictator dictatorship ends Nothing, however, is as ill founded as the assertion of the alleged equality of all members of the human race. Ludwig von Mises members ill race Most of us have no sympathy with the rich idler who spends his life in pleasure without ever doing any work. But even he fulfills a function in the life of the social organism. He sets an example of luxury that awakens in the multitude a consciousness of new needs and gives industry the incentive to fulfill them. Ludwig von Mises luxury example giving What economic calculation requires is a monetary system whose functioning is not sabotaged by government interference. Ludwig von Mises monetary-system economic government War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings...but no one has for those reasons yet sought to celebrate earthquakes and cholera as stimulators of the productive forces in the general interest. Ludwig von Mises prosperity earthquakes war Continued inflation inevitably leads to catastrophe. Ludwig von Mises inflation catastrophe Mankind does not drink alcohol because there are breweries, distilleries, and vineyards; men brew beer, distill spirits, and grow grapes because of the demand for alcoholic drinks. Ludwig von Mises alcohol beer men Interventionism cannot be considered as an economic system destined to stay. It is a method for the transformation of capitalism into socialism by a series of successive steps. Ludwig von Mises socialism transformation steps Economic knowledge necessarily leads to liberalism Ludwig von Mises liberalism economic