Ludwig von Mises Quotes

... a consolidation of unchecked and despotic power in the House of Representatives ...

Arbitrary power is the natural object of temptation to a prince, as wine and women to a young fellow, or a bribe to a judge, or avarice to old age.

The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.

For ten years Caesar ruled with an iron hand. Then with a wooden foot, and finally with a piece of string.

... the perfect dictatorship.

That which killed my late master, & so many of his predecessors. The responsibility of arbitrary power.

The whole administrative, judicial, and legislative machinery obeys a single will, the caprice of General Porfirio Diaz, who during his long administration has shown that the principal motive that guides him is to maintain himself in power and at any cost.

Absolute power should never be trusted to man. It has perverted the wisest heads, and corrupted the best hearts in the world. I should be afraid to commit my property, liberty and life to a body of angels for one whole year.

… we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.

Putin has all the power under his control, all the security forces, all the billions of dollars he needs. It's mad to pretend otherwise.

The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Tyranny knows no restraint of appetite.

These last few years we've seen an unacceptable abuse of power, having a president whose priority is expanding his own power.

It's the most ambitious power grab I've ever witnessed.

The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.

The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks.

Korell is that frequent phenomenon in history : the republic whose ruler has every attribute of the absolute monarch but the name. It therefore enjoyed the usual despotism unrestrained even by those two moderating influences in the legitimate monarchies: regal "honor" and court etiquette.

By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable.

The peculiar danger of executive power is that it executes.

The more intense a spiritual leader's appetite for power, the more he is concerned to limit it to others.

I really am a pessimist. I've always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy. Democracy is a grace. It's something essentially splendid because it's not at all routine or automatic. Fascism goes back to our infancy and childhood, where we were always told how to live. We were told, Yes, you may do this; no, you may not do that. So the secret of fascism is that it has this appeal to people whose later lives are not satisfactory.

Irresponsible power is inconsistent with liberty, and must corrupt those who exercise it.

The progress of despotism tends to disappoint its own purpose.

With people in high office, the old - you go into the extreme, which is absolute power and absolute power corrupts.