Ludwig von Mises

The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.

The attainment of the economic aims of man presupposes peace.

Sovereignty must not be used for inflicting harm on anyone, whether citizen or foreigner.

The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.

Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism.

If some peoples pretend that history or geography gives them the right to subjugate other races, nations, or peoples, there can be no peace.

A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets.

Peace and not war is the father of all things.

Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being.

Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire.

The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.

War... is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror.

If men do not now succeed in abolishing war, civilization and mankind are doomed.

Men are fighting... because they are convinced that the extermination of adversaries is the only means of promoting their own well-being.

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.

Whoever wants peace among nations must seek to limit the state and its influence most strictly.

War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings.

Innovation is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public.

Only one thing can conquer war - that attitude of mind which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation.

Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business.

Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace.

Human civilization is not something achieved against nature; it is rather the outcome of the working of the innate qualities of man.

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking.

If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.

War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods.

The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest.