Ludwig von Mises Quotes

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

We too often bind ourselves by authorities rather than by the truth.

I don’t care for ideological people. It’s like those people just want to stop thinking.

People tend not to want to question dogma. But I'm afraid of dogma.

To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.

Here is a man with the greatest intellect in Europe, and yet he debases it by simply following majorities and the crowd.

Sadly, in the highest levels of economic thought in government, questions are not tolerated. It is as if we're dealing with the binary thinking of a fundamentalist religion.

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.

To put away one's own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Ghost.

I've never been impressed with bureaucratic tradition. I don't like it when the parties come to me and say, 'This is the way that it's always done, judge.' I never found anything in the oath I took or the statutes I was asked to look at that said, 'Judge, stop thinking, because this is the way it was done before.'

Dogma not only blinds its protagonist, but it muzzles all other opposition.

When everyone thinks alike, no one is thinking clearly.

I've always been suspicious of collective truths.

We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.

Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. Supineness and dogmatism take the place of inquiry. A problem can no longer be pursued to its edges ... discussion often leaves off where it should begin.

If there is anything more dangerous to the life of the mind than having no independent commitment to ideas, it is having an excess commitment to some special or constricting idea.

When a man can take a poll and tell what everybody is thinking, that means nobody is really thinking anymore.

To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.

The opinion of the majority is not lightly to be rejected; but neither is it to be carelessly echoed.

… people reject the validity of a scientific source because its conclusion contradicted their deeply held views.

Many teachers seem to believe their opinions are right, and therefore, all other viewpoints are wrong. And they are indoctrinating our children with their beliefs.

All of us, whether we are ignorant of philosophy or professors of philosophy, find it easier to follow dogma than to think.

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.

If you try to use your head to think about things, people don't want to have anything to do with you

As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles.