Introduction

Ludwig von Mises was one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. More than just an economist, Mises was an historian, philosopher, sociologist, social critic and so much more. His prolific output includes more than twenty books and hundreds of articles that explore virtually every subject of interest related to the economy and social thought.

It has become increasingly common for writers working for the financial publications, the popular press, mainstream academic journals, and most especially the Internet, to quote from the writing of Mises. He left us with a tremendous storehouse of knowledge to quote from. It remains fresh and insightful, so eminently applicable, and even entertaining. We hope this book will further encourage this trend.

The idea for this project was the brainchild of Martin Garfinkel, Esquire, of Carbondale, Colorado. He not only foresaw the need and usefulness of such a book, but collected an entire book’s worth of quotations from Human Action, which was the starting point and forms the core of this book. It really has been a group project with several people making important contributions such as Thomas DiLorenzo, C.J. Maloney, and B.K. Marcus. Many scholars associated with the Mises Institute assisted, as well as the staff, especially Jeffrey Tucker, and many students. Of special note is Richard Perry who edited and collated the final list of quotes. The greatest thanks goes to Bettina Bien Greaves, whose enthusiastic support for this project provided inspiration. Her generous permission to use these quotes, as well as her suggestions along the way, are greatly appreciated.

This book is not intended as an introduction to Mises or as a summary of his work. It is only a collection of pithy quotations that illustrate the power of his thought.

One of the biggest hurdles was not finding good quotes, but limiting the number of quotes to a useful level. Mises’s important books and monographs were mined for quotable material as we tried to provide a representative list of topics and subjects that Mises is most famous for: socialism, bureaucracy, interventionism, money, government, and war. We included many subject areas for which Mises is not often quoted, including arts, fate, health, instinct, martyrdom, religion, and youth.

We hope that you find your favorite Mises quote in this book, but we do not guarantee it. We could not even include all of our own favorites. Only the most minimal punctuation changes have been made and only for the literary demands of this venue. The page numbers are included so that the reader can examine the context and full import of all of these quotes.¹

Enjoy.

Mark Thornton

Editor

Mark Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the book review editor for the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He is the author of The Economics of Prohibition and coauthor of Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War (with Robert B. Ekelund, Jr.).

¹We have included page numbers for both the Scholar’s Edition of Human Action (which is a reprint of the first edition) and the third edition. The quotes here have been taken from the more widely circulated third edition and in a few instances they are slightly different from the first edition. The page numbers appearing first in the text are from the first edition, followed by the page numbers from the third edition.

The Mises Institute is preparing a new translation of Mises’s Notes and Recollections, and the quotes herein are from this new translation.