Ludwig von Mises

Austrian-American economist (1881–1973)

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Lived 1881–1973, aged 92United States

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Wikipedia
62 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1881–1973
Aged 92
Awards
2
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

The economist who built a deductive science of human action and spent half a century defending market order against the century's authoritarian tide. His students—Hayek, Rothbard, Kirzner—seeded the institutions that made modern libertarianism possible.

Biography

About

Born in Austria-Hungary in 1881, Mises made his name in Vienna writing and lecturing on classical liberalism and the role of consumers in shaping markets, comparing communism and capitalism as Europe lurched toward illiberalism. In 1949 he published Human Action, laying out praxeology—a method that rejected empirical modeling in favor of deducing economic behavior from the logic of individual choice. He'd already been running a private seminar in Vienna that trained a generation; later, teaching at New York University, he shaped Hayek, Rothbard, and Kirzner, who went on to build the Foundation…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises

said1952

If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action.

— Planning for Freedom (1952), p. 44

Ludwig von Mises

said1951

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

— The Free Market and Its Enemies, speech to the Foundation for Economic Education (1951)

Ludwig von Mises

said1944

The goal of liberalism is the peaceful cooperation of all men. It aims at peace among nations too.

— Omnipotent Government : The Rise of the Total State and Total War (1944)

Ludwig von Mises

said1944

The characteristic feature of militarism is not the fact that a nation has a powerful army or navy. It is the paramount role assigned to the army within the political structure.

— Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War (1944)

Ludwig von Mises

said1922