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Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (1949)
Ludwig von Mises
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| Quote | Source | Page | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| A judgment of value does not measure, it arranges in a scale of degrees, it grades. It is expressive of an order of preference and sequence, but not expressive of measure and weight. | Human Action | p. 97; p. 97 | Value |
| A man is free as far as he shapes his life according to his own plans. A man whose fate is determined by the plans of a superior authority, in which the exclusive power to plan is vested, is not free in the sense in which the term free was used and understood by all people until the semantic revolution of our day brought about a confusion of tongues. | Human Action | p. 285; p. 287 | Tyranny |
| A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses between life and death. 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. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings. | Human Action | p. 676; p. 680 | 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. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings. | Human Action | p. 676; p. 680 | Capitalism vs. Socialism |
| Action is a display of potency and control that are limited. It is a manifestation of man who is restrained by the circumscribed powers of his mind, the physiological nature of his body, the vicissitudes of his environment, and the scarcity of external factors on which his welfare depends. | Human Action | p. 70; p. 70 | Action |
| Action is an attempt to substitute a more satisfactory state of affairs for a less satisfactory one. We call such a willfully induced alteration an exchange. | Human Action | p. 97; p. 97 | Action |
| Aggressive nationalism is the necessary derivative of the policies of interventionism and national planning. | Human Action | p. 819; p. 823 | Nationalism |
| All capital goods sooner or later enter into final products and cease to exist through use, consumption, wear and tear. | Human Action | p. 514; p. 517 | Capital |
| All present-day governments are fanatically committed to an easy money policy. | Human Action | p. 570; p. 572 | Monetary Policy |
| All that a tariff can achieve is to divert production from those locations in which the output per unit of input is higher to locations in which it is lower. It does not increase production; it curtails it. | Human Action | p. 737; p. 744 | Tariffs |