“Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will.”

Whoever neglects to examine to the best of his abilities all the problems involved voluntarily surrenders his birthright to a selfappointed elite of supermen.

A higher standard of living also brings about a higher standard of culture and civilization.

The flowering of human society depends on two factors: the intellectual power of outstanding men to conceive sound social and economic theories, and the ability of these or other men to make these ideologies palatable to the majority.

Economic prosperity is not so much a material problem; it is, first of all, an intellectual, spiritual, and moral problem.

Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things.

There is no means by which anyone can evade his personal responsibility.

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

Their attitudes result either in profit or in loss for the enterpriser. They make poor men rich and rich men poor. They are no easy bosses.

The truth is that the government cannot give if it does not take from somebody…It is not in the power of the government to make everybody more prosperous.

They can open the way to credit expansion by the banks. They can thus create an artificial boom and the appearance of prosperity. But such a boom is bound to collapse soon or late and to bring about a depression.

The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market economy, are the consumers.

[E]conomic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics

Government spending cannot create additional jobs. If the government provides the funds required by taxing the citizens or by borrowing from the public, it abolishes on the one hand as many jobs as it creates on the other.

Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, masters, and bachelors of the most renowned universities.

The most serious dangers for American freedom and the American way of life do not come from without.

The life before ’68 was very different from the life after ’68. Before ’68, our days were full of authoritarian moments. There were authorities everywhere. In fact, the movement of ’68 was young people against their authorities, children against their parents. And that remained.

Planning other people’s actions means to prevent them from planning for themselves, means to deprive them of their essentially human quality, means enslaving them.

How could I stand the separation from family and friends? It is ironic, I say, that in an authoritarian state it is only the prisoner of conscience who is genuinely free. Yes, we have given up our right to a normal life. But we have stayed true to that most precious part of our humanity-our conscience.

A part of society in our countries would still prefer an authoritarian regime today. These are people with the mentality of Homo sovieticus. But they also exist in France – just think of Le Pen – and even in Finland and Sweden.