Some pertinent Mises quotes on inflation:
Ludwig von Mises Continued inflation inevitably leads to catastrophe. Defense, Controls, and Inflation p. 109
Ludwig von Mises The assistance of inflation is invoked whenever a government is unwilling to increase taxation or unable to raise a loan; that is the truth of the matter. The Theory of Money and Credit p. 253
Ludwig von Mises What people today call inflation is not inflation, i.e., the increase in the quantity of money and money substitutes, but the general rise in commodity prices and wage rates which is the inevitable consequence of inflation. Planning for Freedom p. 79
Ludwig von Mises But the certain fact about inflation is that, sooner or later, it must come to an end. It is a policy that cannot last. Economic Policy p. 63
Ludwig von Mises The most important thing to remember is that inflation is not an act of God, that inflation is not a catastrophe of the elements or a disease that comes like the plague. Inflation is a policy. Economic Policy p. 72
Ludwig von Mises Money, like chocolate on a hot oven, was melting in the pockets of the people. Economic Policy p. 65
Ludwig von Mises Inflation can be pursued only so long as the public still does not believe it will continue. Once the people generally realize that the inflation will be continued on and on and that the value of the monetary unit will decline more and more, then the fate of the money is sealed. Only the belief, that the inflation will come to a stop, maintains the value of the notes. On the Manipulation of Money and Credit p. 16
Ludwig von Mises Inflationism, however, is not an isolated phenomenon. It is only one piece in the total framework of politico-economic and socio-philosophical ideas of our time. Just as the sound money policy of gold standard advocates went hand in hand with liberalism, free trade, capitalism and peace, so is inflationism part and parcel of imperialism, militarism, protectionism, statism and socialism. On the Manipulation of Money and Credit p. 48
Ludwig von Mises Inflation and credit expansion, the preferred methods of present day government openhandedness, do not add anything to the amount of resources available. They make some people more prosperous, but only to the extent that they make others poorer. Bureaucracy p. 84 Inflation
Ludwig von Mises The pretended solicitude for the nations welfare, for the public in general, and for the poor ignorant masses in particular was a mere blind. The governments wanted inflation and credit expansion, they wanted booms and easy money. Human Action p. 438; p. 441
Ludwig von Mises It would be a serious blunder to neglect the fact that inflation also generates forces which tend toward capital consumption. One of its consequences is that it falsifies economic calculation and accounting. It produces the phenomenon of illusory or apparent profits. Human Action p. 546; p. 549
Ludwig von Mises If inflation is pushed to its ultimate consequences, it makes any stipulation of deferred payments in terms of the inflated currency cease altogether. Human Action p. 779; p. 785
Ludwig von Mises Credit expansion and inflationary increase of the quantity of money frustrate the common mans attempts to save and to accumulate reserves for less propitious days. Human Action p. 834; p. 838
Ludwig von Mises Inflation is essentially antidemocratic. Omnipotent Government p. 252
Ludwig von Mises The advocates of public control cannot do without inflation. They need it in order to finance their policy of reckless spending and of lavishly subsidizing and bribing the voters. The Theory of Money and Credit p. 479
Ludwig von Mises One can say without exaggeration that inflation is an indispensable intellectual means of militarism. Without it, the repercussions of war on welfare would become obvious much more quickly and penetratingly; war-weariness would set in much earlier. Nation, State, and Economy p. 163
Ludwig von Mises There has been no generation that has not grumbled about the expensive times that it lives in. But the fact that everything is becoming dearer simply means that the objective exchange value of money is falling. The Theory of Money and Credit p. 177
Ludwig von Mises Who has any doubt that the belligerent peoples of Europe would have tired of war much more quickly if their governments had clearly and candidly laid before them at the time the account of their war expenditure? The Theory of Money and Credit p. 254
Ludwig von Mises Inflation has always been an important resource of policies of war and revolution and why we also find it in the service of socialism. The Theory of Money and Credit p. 255
Ludwig von Mises Inflation is the fiscal complement of statism and arbitrary government. It is a cog in the complex of policies and institutions which gradually lead toward totalitarianism. The Theory of Money and Credit p. 468
Ludwig von Mises Inflation is the true opium of the people and it is administered to them by anticapitalist governments and parties. The Theory of Money and Credit p. 485
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