Human Action

Human action originates change. As far as there is human action there is no stability, but ceaseless alteration. The historical process is a sequence of changes. It is beyond the power of man to stop it and to bring about an age of stability in which all history comes to a standstill. It is man's nature to strive after improvement, to beget new ideas, and to rearrange the conditions of his life according to these ideas.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 12, Section 4, The Sphere of Economic Calculation: Stabilization, 1949

On Erroneous Views and Sanity

However, it is clear that if the mere fact that a man shares erroneous views and acts according to his errors qualifies him as mentally disabled, it would be very hard to discover an individual to which the epithet sane or normal could be attributed. Then we are bound to call the past generations lunatic because their ideas about the problems of the natural sciences and concomitantly their techniques differed from ours. Coming generations will call us lunatics for the same reason. Man is liable to error. If to err were the characteristic feature of mental disability, then everybody should be called mentally disabled.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 9, Section 2, The Role of Ideas: World View and Ideology, 1949

Economics and Reality

Economics deals with real man, weak and subject to error as he is, not with ideal beings, omniscient and perfect as only gods could be.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 4, Section 3, The Scale of Needs, 1949

On Human Foreknowledge

Whatever the system of government may be, the foundation upon which it is built and rests is always the opinion of those ruled that to obey and to be loyal to this government better serves their own interests than insurrection and the establishment of another regime. The majority has the power to do away with an unpopular government and uses this power whenever it becomes convinced that its own welfare requires it.  In the long run there is no such thing as an unpopular government

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 6, Section 1, Uncertainty and Acting, 1949

Traditionalism

For the core of traditionalism is not real historical facts, but an opinion about them, however mistaken, and a will to believe things to which the authority of ancient origin is attributed.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 9, Section 3, The Role of Ideas: Might, 1949

On False Dogma

Hence, people concluded, the gain of one man is the damage of another; no man profits but by the loss of others. 

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 24, Section 1, Harmony and Conflict of Interests: The Ultimate Source of Profit and Loss on the Market, 1949

On Utopia

After the philosophers had abandoned the search for the absolute, the utopians took it up. They weave dreams about the perfect state. They do not realize that the state, the social apparatus of compulsion and coercion, is an institution to cope with human imperfection and that its essential function is to inflict punishment upon minorities in order to protect majorities against the detrimental consequences of certain actions. With "perfect" men there would not be any need for compulsion and coercion. But utopians do not pay heed to human nature and the inalterable conditions of human life.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 2, Section 11, The Limitations on Praxeological Concepts, 1949

On Value

Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 4, Section 2, The Scale of Value, 1949

On the Instinct of Aggression and Destruction

One must not tell the masses: Indulge in your urge for murder; it is genuinely human and best serves your well-being. One must tell them: If you satisfy your thirst for blood, you must forego many other desires. You want to eat, to drink, to live in fine homes, to clothe yourselves, and a thousand other things which only society can provide. You cannot have everything, you must choose. The dangerous life and the frenzy of sadism may please you, but they are incompatible with the security and plenty which you do not want to miss either.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 8, Section 8, Human Society: The Instinct of Aggression and Destruction, 1949

Society

Society, ... always involves men acting in cooperation with other men in order to let all participants attain their own ends.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 8, Section 7, Human Society: The Great Society, 1949

Rent a Cop

As for the “rent-a-cops” who serve on the Jerry Springer show, is there any doubt that they are far superior to any public alternatives when it comes to breaking up a fight at the exact point when the combatants are appropriately half undressed?

Source: Walter Block, The Privatization of Roads & Highways, 2009, Pg 252

Economic History

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. An economist can never be a favorite of autocrats and demagogues. With them he is always the mischief-maker, and the more they are inwardly convinced that his objections are well founded, the more they hate him.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 2, The Procedure of Economics, 1949

Utilty is

Utility is a subjective phenomenon, rooted in individual preference. There are no units with which to measure utility, a fact that appears to be no more than a slight annoyance to those who would measure it.

Source: Walter Block, The Privatization of Roads & Highways, 2009, Pg 129

On the Fun Factor

... the prospects for liberty have nothing to do with my own commitment to the process of trying to obtaining it. That is, I am going to keep trying, at exactly the same pace, no matter what the prospects are.  My reasoning has little to do with the likelihood of success. I do it because I think it’s my moral obligation to do it, because I want to pass onto the next generation the flag, or the torch or the banner that’s been passed onto me, and because it is just so much fun.

Source: Walter Block, The Privatization of Roads & Highways, 2009, Pg 417

How to Convert the World

The Count of Oropesa, more than four centuries ago, had a passion to reform the world. A Spanish saint, San Pedro of Alcantara, gave him this kind of counsel.

May your Lordship not torment yourself: there is a remedy for this deluge of crimes. Let us be, you and me, that which we should be. There will be two less souls to convert. Let each person behave thus: it is the most efficacious of reforms. The trouble is, that no one wants to correct himself and everyone meddles at correcting others: thus everything stays as is.

Source: Unsourced
Taken From:  Leonard Read, How to Advance Liberty, March 10, 1965

Self-Improvement

... it is only in self-improvement that one can have any influence whatsoever on the improvement of others. This point may never come clear unless we know why so few of us feel any need for self-improvement while so many of us possess an overpowering itch to improve others. Why do we spend so much more time looking down than up?

Source:  Leonard Read, How to Advance Liberty, March 10, 1965

Reform

And so I hold it is not treason
To advance a simple reason
For the sorry lack of progress we decry.
It is this: Instead of working
On himself, each man is shirking
And trying to reform some other guy.

Source:  Unknown, Earliest reference is The Rotarian, Nov 1925
Taken From:  How to Advance Liberty, Leonard Read, 1965

Capitalism vs Socialism

A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society.

Source: Ludwig von Mises, Human Action; Capitalism vs Socialism, 1949
Taken From: Why Capitalism is Worth Defending, Anthony Gregory 2/8/2011

Total War

As taxpayer or draftee, every Iraqi is implicated in his government’s defense just as every American is drawn into the U.S. government’s attack. Thus, the war becomes a war of all Americans against all Iraqis, i.e., total war.

Source: Hans-Herman Hoppe
Taken From:  The Private Production of Defense, 1998

Bail out the Banks?

... in our system of profit and loss, we cannot possibly think that the government should bail the banks out of bad loans they made, but allow them to keep the profits on the good ones.

Source: Milton Friedman (Unsourced)
Taken From:  The Dollar Meltdown, Ch2 Quotes