Search This Blog

Richard Branson - Birthday - Branson School of Entrepreneurship in Jhg - July 2008

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Von Mises: The question the world is not prepared for.

As a teacher he (von Mises) was asked one day by a young student, a beginner, what he should read in the field of economics. As his wife, Margit von Mises related the story, he answered, "This is a very difficult question you have asked, and I would rather say something about books. People have the idea trhat there must be somewhere in the library one, or several books, which contain everything that they have to know. Wisdom cannot be acquired this way. You must read a great number of books.
"You will make mistakes, you will read bad books, but it is necessary that you yourself discover by reading what is good and what is bad. Once no longer a free individual, you will only read the books that the gonernment or a famous professor has recommended. Certainly you may ask people to recommend a very interesting book, but you must not say, 'I want to have one book, a very small one, which tells me everything I have to know.' The world is not prepared for such a question."

From: Champions of freedom - the Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series

Get it at: http://oldbooksforsale.blogspot.com/

"...the free market, the only societal arrangement that works miracles." Leonard Read

No comments: