The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science Quotes

“The masses do not like those who surpass them in any regard. The average man envies and hates those who are different.”
― Ludwig Von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method

“By rendering their enterprises profitable, the consumers shift control of the factors of production into the hands of those businessmen who serve them best. By rendering the enterprises of the bungling entrepreneurs unprofitable, they withdraw control from those entrepreneurs with whose services they disagree. It is antisocial in the strict meaning of the term if governments thwart these decisions of the people by taxing profits. From a genuinely social point of view, it would be more “social” to tax losses than to tax profits.”
― Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method

“The term “speculate” was originally employed to signify any kind of meditation and forming of an opinion. Today it is employed with an opprobrious connotation to disparage those men who, in the capitalistic market economy, excel in better anticipating the future reactions of their fellow men than the average man does. The rationale of this semantic usage is to be seen in the inability of shortsighted people to notice the uncertainty of the future. These people fail to realize that all production activities aim at satisfying the most urgent future wants and that today no certainty about future conditions is available. They are not aware of the fact that there is a qualitative problem in providing for the future. In all the writings of the socialist authors there is not the slightest allusion to be found to the fact that one of the main problems of the conduct of production activities is to anticipate the future demands of the consumers.”
― Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method

“The inferiority of the multitude manifests itself most convincingly in the fact that they loathe the capitalistic system and stigmatize the profits that their own behavior creates as unfair.”
― Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method

“O traço distintivo do homem é a ação. O homem visa a mudar algumas das condições de seu ambiente a fim de substituir um estado de coisas que lhe convenha menos por outro que lhe convenha mais [...]. A ação é conduta intencional. Não é simplesmente comportamento, mas comportamento gerado por juízos de valor visando a um fim definido e guiado por ideias relativas à adequação ou inadequação de determinados meios. É impossível lidar com a ação sem as categorias da causalidade e da finalidade. É comportamento consciente. É escolha. É volição; é a manifestação da vontade44.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Os fundamentos últimos da ciência econômica: Um ensaio sobre o método