Ludwig von Mises Quotes

I rebel against death, yet I know that it is how I respond to death's inevitability that is going to make me less or more fully alive.

We are all, always, the desire not to die. This desire is as immeasurable and varied as life's complexity, but at bottom this is what it is: To continue to be, to be more and more, to develop and to endure. All the force we have, all our energy and clearness of mind serve to intensify themselves in one way or another. We intensify ourselves with new impressions, new sensations, new ideas. We endeavour to take what we do not have and to add it to ourselves. Humanity is the desire for novelty founded upon the fear of death. That is what it is.

Each beat told him he was still alive, at least for one more second.

Rather suffer than die is man's motto.

Death and sex are the dominant reality of our day.

I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.

Really, I'm only alive out of curiosity. I'm very curious about where we're all marching.

I want to live. I didn't have time to die.

There is an indescribable something that ties us to life. For this purpose, it is not necessary that we should be happy. Though our life be almost without enjoyment, we do not consent to part with it.

Life comes forth for no other reason than to be and make more life. It will fight and crawl and do anything in its power to live, and once alive, it will stand against all to remain alive. Its existence is its own argument.

Attack life, it's going to kill you anyway.

I am afraid of death. You are young, so presumably you're more afraid of it than I am. Obviously we shall put if off as long as we can. But it makes very little difference. So long as human beings stay human, death and life are the same thing.

When you die, it will not be because you are sick, but because you were alive.

Of this I am certain, that no one has ever died who was not destined to die some time. Now the end of life puts the longest life on a par with the shortest... And of what consequence is it what kind of death puts an end to life, since he who has died once is not forced to go through the same ordeal a second time? They, then, who are destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them.

A good motto to live by: "Always try not to get killed.

One wants to live, of course, indeed one only stays alive by virtue of the fear of death.

There is nothing men are so anxious to keep, and yet are so careless about, as life.

You're never so alive as after you thought you were going to die.

Give life long enough and it will solve all your problems, including the one of being alive.

Of all human foibles love of living is the most powerful.

There's really nothing quite like someone's wanting you dead to make you want to go on living.

They want us dead,' said Bond calmly. 'So we have to stay alive.

At my age, I regard each funeral I attend as a personal triumph, because I was not the guest of honor.

True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: "I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live."

I believe that the struggle against death, the unconditional and self-willed determination to live, is the mode of power behind the lives and activities of all outstanding men.