-Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute, The Scholar’s Edition, 2008), p. 308.
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- “It is…impossible to substitute other people’s work for that of the creators. If Dante and Beethoven had not existed, one would not have been in a position to produce the Divina Commedia or the Ninth Symphony by assigning other men to these tasks. Neither society nor single individuals can substantially further the genius and his work…But, of course, one can organize society in such a way that no room is left for pioneers and their path-breaking.”
- “There is in the social system of the market society no other means of acquiring wealth and of preserving it than successful service to the consumers.”
- “Production is not something physical, natural, and external; it is a spiritual and intellectual phenomenon. Its essential requisites are not human labor and external natural forces and things, but the decision of the mind to use these factors as means for the attainment of ends. What produces the product is not toil and trouble in themselves, but the fact that the toilers are guided by reason.”
- “Economics is not about things and tangible material objects; it is about men, their meanings and actions. Goods, commodities, and wealth and all the other notions of conduct are not elements of nature; they are elements of human meaning and conduct.”