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Etatism is the occupational disease of rulers, warriors, and civil servants. Governments become liberal only when forced to by the citizens.

— Ludwig von Mises

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Government

More quotes by Ludwig von Mises

Inflation is an increase in the quantity of money without a corresponding increase in the demand for money, i.e., for cash holdings.

The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate.

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science (1962)

In a battle between force and an idea, the latter always prevails.

Liberalism (1927)

Repression by brute force is always a confession of the inability to make use of the better weapons of the intellect — better because they alone give promise of final success.

Liberalism (1927)

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science (1962)

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ludwig von Mises (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.