Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises. 1881 – 1973. Austrian and American economist, philosopher, historian. One of the founders of libertarianism.
Quotes:
1. A doctrine may be modern, fashionable, generally accepted and nevertheless detrimental to human society, civilization and survival.
2. The essence of an individual’s freedom is the opportunity to deviate from traditional ways of thinking and of doing things.
3. Logic is the only tool available to man for the comprehension of reality.
4. Under capitalism, material success depends on the appreciation of a man’s achievements on the part of the sovereign consumers.
5. We may define freedom as that state of affairs in which the individual’s discretion to choose is not constrained by governmental violence beyond the margin within which the praxeological law restricts it anyway.
6. Economic knowledge necessarily leads to liberalism.
7. Representative democracy cannot subsist if a great part of the voters are on the government pay roll.
8. The bureaucrat as voter is more eager to get a raise than to keep the budget balanced.
9. For democracy is not mob rule, and to do justice to its tasks, parliament should include the best political minds of the nation.
10. The first requisite for a better social order is the return to unrestricted freedom of thought and speech.
