Leonard E. Read

Articles

08/31/2010 Articles of Interest Leonard E. Read

I am a lead pencil — the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that’s all I do. You may wonder why I...

I Don’t Know

11/02/2011 Mises Daily Leonard E. Read

These students of liberty have not yet learned to answer honestly, “I don’t know; I never will know; no one will ever know.”

The Rap against Unearned Riches

11/10/2011 Mises Daily Leonard E. Read

Only if one understands the subjective theory of value may he proceed logically to a belief in private ownership and control of property.

Publications

To Free or Freeze

05/15/1972 Leonard E. Read

That millions claim “the last word” on matters of political economy, and disagree as much as they do, suggests that no one has more than scratched the surface.

Accent On The Right

01/11/1968 Leonard E. Read

In this work dedicated to the memory of Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), Leonard E. Read explores an array of themes such as the sources of human progress, the political consequences of not thinking for one’s self, and finding what is right and wrong

Why Not Try Freedom

06/15/1958 Leonard E. Read

Liberty is an outward creation of man which he has adopted for himself and whose use and enjoyment he reserves for mankind as a whole, for which he struggles and to which he dedicates consciously or unconsciously his highest efforts. But at the same

Media

The Miraculous Market

03/26/2009 Leonard E. Read

Think of it! The finest orchestrations ever known to man, the most beautiful music any individual on earth has heard — all mine, and done for me privately when I want it, and where I want it, and for no more than the flick of a switch. Staggering

I, Pencil

04/01/2009 Leonard E. Read

The audio version of Leonard Read’s classic essay. Narrated by Floy Lilley.

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.