He who disdains the fall in infant mortality and the gradual disappearance of famines and plagues may cast the first stone upon the materialism of the economists.
Ludwig von MisesPrivate property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will. It allows other forces to arise side by side with and in opposition to political power. It thus becomes the basis of all those activities that are free from violent interference on the part of the state. It is the soil in which the seeds of freedom are nurtured and in which the autonomy of the individual and ultimately all intellectual and material progress are rooted.
Ludwig von MisesPeople do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because this best serves their own interests.
Ludwig von MisesAll attempts to coerce the living will of human beings into the service of something they do not want must fail
Ludwig von MisesThe middle-of-the-road policy is not an economic system that can last. It is a method for the realization of socialism by installments.
Ludwig von MisesMost 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