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Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War (1944)
Ludwig von Mises
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| Quote | Source | Page | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| A nation, therefore, has no right to say to a province: You belong to me, I want to take you. A province consists of its inhabitants. If anybody has a right to be heard in this case it is these inhabitants. Boundary disputes should be settled by plebiscite. | Omnipotent Government | p. 90 | Secession |
| A new type of superstition has got hold of peoples minds, the worship of the state. People demand the exercise of the methods of coercion and compulsion, of violence and threat. Woe to anybody who does not bend his knee to the fashionable idols! | Omnipotent Government | p. 11 | State |
| A state without territory is an empty concept. A state without sovereignty is a contradiction in terms. | Omnipotent Government | p. 46 | Sovereignty |
| Almost all the fathers of socialism were members of the upper middle class or of the professions. | Omnipotent Government | p. 118 | Intellectuals |
| Both force and money are impotent against ideas. | Omnipotent Government | p. 210 | Ideas |
| But what is needed for a satisfactory solution of the burning problem of international relations is neither a new office with more committees, secretaries, commissioners, reports, and regulations, nor a new body of armed executioners, but the radical overthrow of mentalities and domestic policies which must result in conflict. | Omnipotent Government | p. 6 | War and Peace |
| Chauvinism has not begotten nationalism. Its chief function in the scheme of nationalist policies is to adorn the shows and festivals of nationalism. People overflow with joy and pride when the official speakers hail them as the elite of mankind and praise the immortal deeds of their ancestors and the invincibility of their armed forces. But when the words fade away and the celebration reaches its end, people return home and go to bed. They do not mount the battlehorse. | Omnipotent Government | p. 125 | Chauvinism |
| Conceit and overvaluation of ones own nation are quite common. But it would be wrong to assume that hatred and contempt of foreigners are natural and innate qualities. Even soldiers fighting to kill their enemies do not hate the individual foe, if they happen to meet him apart from the battle. | Omnipotent Government | p. 124 | Chauvinism |
| Corruption is an evil inherent in every government not controlled by a watchful public opinion. | Omnipotent Government | p. 206 | Corruption |
| Democracy too is not divine. | Omnipotent Government | p. 47 | Democracy |