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

Democratic Majoritarianism

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 8, Section 2, A Critique of the Holistic and Metaphysical View of Society, 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

On Society

Society is joint action and cooperation in which each participant sees the other partner's success as a means for the attainment of his own.

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

On the Origins of Social Cooperation

Neither love not charity nor any other sympathetic sentiments but rightly understood selfishness is what originally impelled man to adjust himself to the requirements of society, to respect the rights and freedoms of his fellow men and to substitute peaceful collaboration for enmity and conflict.

Source: Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action, Chapter 8, Section 6, Human Society: The Individual Within Society, 1949

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

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

Economics

economics is apolitical or nonpolitical … it is perfectly neutral with regard to judgments of value, as it refers always to means and never to the choice of ultimate ends.

Source:  Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Pg 881
Taken From:  Ralph Raico, Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism at Mises.org, 03/04/2010

The Market Force

The selective process of the market is actuated by the composite effort of all members of the market economy.… The resultant of these endeavors is not only the price structure but no less the social structure, the assignment of definite tasks to the various individuals. The market makes people rich or poor, determines who shall run the big plants and who shall scrub the floors, fixes how many people shall work in the copper mines and how many in the symphony orchestras. None of these decisions is made once and for all; they are revocable every day.

Source:  Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Pg 311
Taken From:  Ralph Raico, Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism at Mises.org, 03/04/2010

Change of Money Supply

An increase in the quantity of money can no more increase the welfare of the members of a community, than a diminution of it can decrease their welfare.

Ludwig Von Mises (The Theory of Money and Credit, 1912)

Human Affiars

Not mythical 'material forces', but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs. What is needed to stop the trend towards socialism and despotism is common sense and moral courage.

Ludwig von Mises (1932, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis 2nd Edition)

Gary North on Mises' Contribution

The State's coercive interference in either money or banking, including its licensing of a monopolistic central bank, reduces all men's freedom and most men's wealth.

Gary North on Ludwig von Mises' "most important and unique contribution" (2002, Mises on Money)