“Only stilted pedants can conceive the idea that there are absolute norms to tell what is beautiful and what is not. They try to derive from the works of the past a code of rules with which, as they fancy, the writers and artists of the future should comply. But the genius does not cooperate with the pundit.”

Austrian and American political economist and philosopher

Ludwig Heinrich von Mises was an Austrian and American political economist and philosopher of the Austrian school. He is known for his work on classical liberalism and the place of consumers in a market economy. He wrote and lectured widely on the social value of classical liberalism, and on praxeology, the study most closely associated with his work. He is also known for comparing communism and capitalism, and for defending liberal ideas against the spread of illiberalism and authoritarianism in 20th-century Europe.