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Epistemological Problems of Economics (1960)
Ludwig von Mises
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| Quote | Source | Page | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| A work of art is an attempt to experience the universe as a whole. One cannot analyze or dissect it into parts and comment on it without destroying its intrinsic character. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 136 | Arts |
| Action is, by definition, always rational. One is unwarranted in calling goals of action irrational simply because they are not worth striving for from the point of view of ones own valuations. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 35 | Rational Action |
| Art is nothing more than a faltering and inadequate attempt to express what has been thus experienced and to give some form to its content. The work of art captures not the experience, but only what its creator has been able to express of the experience. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 45 | Arts |
| Cognition is furthered only by clarity and distinctness, never by compromises. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 206 | Knowledge |
| Economic progress is the work of the savers, who accumulate capital, and of the entrepreneurs, who turn capital to new uses. The other members of society, of course, enjoy the advantages of progress, but they not only do not contribute anything to it; they even place obstacles in its way. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 228 | Economic Progress |
| Even knowledge of the laws of nature does not make action free. It is never able to attain more than definite, limited ends. It can never go beyond the insurmountable barriers set for it. And even within the sphere allowed to it, it must always reckon with the inroads of uncontrollable forces, with fate. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 198 | Fate |
| Every new theory encounters opposition and rejection at first. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 184 | Intellectuals |
| Everything that we say about action is independent of the motives that cause it and of the goals toward which it strives in the individual case. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 34 | Economics |
| History makes one wise, but not competent to solve concrete problems. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. xxiii | History |
| In all ages the pioneer in scientific thought has been a solitary thinker. But never has the position of the scientist been more solitary than in the field of modern economics. | Epistemological Problems of Economics | p. 202 | Economics |