Ludwig Von Mises

"It is a common mistake of our contemporaries to view a country's economic problems primarily as a matter of "material" factors and of technical changes. The main issue is intellectual and moral; the spirit is supreme in this field, too." from “The Political Economy of International Reform and Reconstruction” ed. by Richard Ebeling

“America is indebted to Europe for many things. From Europe came its citizens. Its civilization, and its religious and moral principles. But it will discharge this debt with compound interest if it gives Europe anew the political and economic ideas which in the past have produced in Europe and America the highest human civilization hitherto known. The freedom mankind needs most in our day is freedom from utopian superstitions. What ranks above all else for economic and political reconstruction is a radical change of ideologies. Economic prosperity is not so much a material problem; it is, first of all, and intellectual, spiritual, and moral problem.” The Political Economy of International Reform and Reconstruction” ed. by Richard Ebeling, p. 42.

"According to the fundamental doctrine of Christian theology and philosophy, God has created the human mind in endowing man with his faculty of thinking. As both revelation and human reason are manifestations of the Lord’s might, there cannot be ultimately any disagreement between them. God does not contradict himself. It is the object of philosophy and theology to demonstrate the concord between revelation and reason. Such was the problem the solution of which patristic and scholastic philosophy tried to achieve. Most of these thinkers doubted whether the human mind, unaided by revelation, would have been able to become aware of what the dogmas, especially those of the Incarnation and of the Trinity, taught. But they did not express serious doubts concerning the faculty of human reason in all other regards." from The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science.

Quotes

"Mankind would never have reached the present state of civilization without heroism and self-sacrifice on the part of the elite. Every step forward on the way toward an improvement of moral conditions has been an achievement of men who were ready to sacrifice their own well-being, their health, and their lives for the sake of a cause that they considered just and beneficial. They did what they considered their duty without bothering whether they themselves would not be victimized. These people did not work for the sake of reward, they served their cause unto death." from Bureaucracy

Recommended Links:

Liberty Fund

Mises Institute