Ludwig was a Jew who fled to the United States during World War II.

He was also an economist, a professor, and a husband.

Passing away before his wife, his widow Margit quoted a passage that he had written about a friend to describe her husband’s personality:

“His most eminent qualities were his inflexible honesty, his unhesitating sincerity. He never yielded. He always freely enunciated what he considered to be true. If he had been prepared to suppress or only to soften his criticisms of popular, but irresponsible, policies, the most influential positions and offices would have been offered him. But he never compromised.”

This is a remarkable man.

Below are three quotes that further cement that statement.

Mises on Socialists:

“Socialists have full right to be called righteous men. They do not wish to profit personally from their ideology. They seek nothing for themselves. They want to benefit the public. They have nothing but scorn for the riches that the capitalistic order of production offers them. They live for their idea, and if they sacrifice anything, it is their own well-being. They are the idealists among our contemporaries.”

From The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science (1962):

“Man alone has the faculty to build a purpose and to aim at its realization. Stones are moved by an impulse from outside. Animals, in their behavior, follow the impulses of their senses and appetites. Man is the only being who can control his impulses and passions, who can suppress a natural inclination and act contrary to it.”

From Liberalism (1927):

“It is ideas that group men into fighting factions, that press the weapons into their hands, and that determine against whom and for whom the weapons shall be used. It is they alone, and not arms, that, in the last analysis, turn the scales.”