Mises, Ludwig Von: On Inaction

“The vigorous man industriously striving for the improvement of his condition acts neither more nor less than the lethargic man who sluggishly takes things as they come.

For to do nothing and to be idle are also action, they too determine the course of events.

Wherever the conditions for human interference are present, man acts no matter whether he interferes or refrains from interfering.

He who endures what he could change acts no less than he who interferes in order to attain another result.

A man who abstains from influencing the operation of physiological and instinctive factors which he could influence also acts.

Action is not only doing but no less omitting to do what possibly could be done.

We may say that action is the manifestation of a man’s will.

But this would not add to our knowledge.

For the term will means nothing else than man’s faculty to choose between different states of affairs, to prefer one, to set aside the other, and to behave accordingly to the decision made in aiming at the chosen state and forsaking others.

- Ludwig Von Mises, 1949 ~ Human Action

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The Wealth of Actions

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