Ludwig von Mises Quotes

Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

In matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard for any other consideration.

Man must not check his reason by tradition, but, contrariwise, must check tradition by reason.

The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.

Don't assume that because everyone believes a thing, that it is right or wrong. Reason things out for yourself. Work to get answers on your own. Understand why you believe things.

When everyone thinks alike, no one is thinking clearly.

I don't want people to say, 'Something is true because Tyson says it is true.' That's not critical thinking.

Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?

The concept of logical thinking is selection and this is brought about by the processes of acceptance and rejection. Rejection is the basis of logical thinking.

What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry.

People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.

When you place a high value on truth, you have to think for yourself.

One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself.

We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions; we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.

Learn to do your own thinking - don’t let other people do it for you!

In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.

Freethought is respectable. Freethought is crucial. Freethought needs to be publicized.

Truly conservative actions arise from intelligent hypotheses, correct facts and sound reasoning.

As an educator, I try to get people to be fundamentally curious and to question ideas that they might have or that are shared by others. In that state of mind, they have earned a kind of inoculation against the fuzzy thinking of these weird ideas floating around out there. So rather than correct the weird ideas, I would rather them to know how to think in the first place. Then they can correct the weird idea themselves.

The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it.

By freethinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.

The great charm in argument is really finding one's own opinions, not other people's.

To disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to contemning the command of God.

Sound judgment is the ground of writing well.

We can't avoid reasoning; we can only avoid doing it well.