Ludwig von Mises Quotes

The distinctive principle of Western social philosophy is individualism.

What makes America unique in the world is the idea of the self-directed life.

The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right, to choose his own surroundings.

We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government--a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.

This I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.

I remain instinctively hostile to communitarian philosophy and communitarian politics.

I really didn't know much about the Libertarians. I knew they were for less government and more individual freedom. I liked that.

Collectivism means the subjugation of the individual to a group - whether to a race, class or state does not matter. Collectivism holds that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called 'the common good'.

I'm a very individualistic person. That is why I don't belong to any political party or anything. I really believe in justice and freedom.

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.

People are probably going to realize they can live with a lot less government than what they thought they needed.

I appreciate individualism.

I think people should do whatever they want to do. That's the point. Why should you care what other people think or say? You're not living in their pocket.

The liberal, emphasizing the civil and property rights of the individual, insists that the individual must remain so supreme as to make the state his servant.

A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim.

Freedom Party International believes that the purpose of government is to protect every individual's fundamental freedoms, not to restrict them.

My thinking tends to be libertarian. That is, I oppose intrusions of the state into the private realm—as in abortion, sodomy, prostitution, pornography, drug use, or suicide, all of which I would strongly defend as matters of free choice in a representative democracy.

our society -- unlike most in the world -- presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that makes the individual, not government, the keeper of his tastes, beliefs, and ideas.

I think everyone should be their own individualized person.

I'm a big believer in freedom and people's rights to express themselves and not have government interfere in that type of thing.

To work for libertarianism - to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual - used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense.

You subscribe politics to it. I subscribe freedom to it.

I believe that my theory is correct; for whatever be the question upon which I am arguing, whether it be religious, philosophical, political, or economical; whether it affects well-being, morality, equality, right, justice, progress, responsibility, property, labor, exchange, capital, wages, taxes, population, credit, or Government; at whatever point of the scientific horizon I start from, I invariably come to the same thing—the solution of the social problem is in liberty.

Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.

I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty.