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Profit and Loss
| Quote | Source | Page | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is not the fault of the entrepreneurs that the consumers — the people, the common man — prefer liquor to Bibles and detective stories to serious books, and that governments prefer guns to butter. The entrepreneur does not make greater profits in selling bad things than in selling good things. His profits are the greater the better he succeeds in providing the consumers with those things they ask for most intensely. | Human Action | p. 297; pp. 299-300 | Profit and Loss |
| It is precisely the necessity of making profits and avoiding losses that gives to the consumers a firm hold over the entrepreneurs and forces them to comply with the wishes of the people. | Planning for Freedom | p. 134 | Profit and Loss |
| Profit is a product of the mind, of success in anticipating the future state of the market. It is a spiritual and intellectual phenomenon. | Planning for Freedom | p. 120 | Profit and Loss |
| Profit is the pay-off of successful action. It cannot be defined without reference to valuation. It is a phenomenon of valuation and has no direct relation to physical and other phenomena of the external world. | Human Action | p. 393; p. 396 | Profit and Loss |
| Profit is the reward for the best fulfillment of some voluntarily assumed duties. It is the instrument that makes the masses supreme. | Bureaucracy | p. 88 | Profit and Loss |
| Profit tells the entrepreneur that the consumers approve of his ventures; loss, that they disapprove. | Human Action | p. 701; p. 705 | Profit and Loss |
| Profits and loss withdraw the material factors of production from the hands of the inefficient and convey them into the hands of the more efficient. | Planning for Freedom | p. 16 | Profit and Loss |
| Profits are the driving force of the market economy. The greater the profits, the better the needs of the consumers are supplied... He who serves the public best, makes the highest profits. | Human Action | p. 805; p. 809 | Profit and Loss |
| The elimination of profit, whatever methods may be resorted to for its execution, must transform society into a senseless jumble. It would create poverty for all. | Planning for Freedom | p. 149 | Profit and Loss |
| The entrepreneur profits to the extent he has succeeded in serving the consumers better than other people have done. | Human Action | p. 380; p. 383 | Profit and Loss |