Friedrich August von Hayek
people different treat equally inequality
“From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
liberty organization monopol coercion
“The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
majority think independent belief freedom
“Probably it is true enough that the great majority are rarely capable of thinking independently, that on most questions they accept views which they find ready-made, and that they will be equally content if born or coaxed into one set of beliefs or another. In any society freedom of thought will probably be of direct significance only for a small minority. But this does not mean that anyone is competent, or ought to have power, to select those to whom this freedom is to be reserved. It certainly does not justify the presumption of any group of people to claim the right to determine what people ought to think or believe.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
socialist economics
“If socialists understood economics they wouldn't be socialists.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
state plan individual difficult
“The more the state "plans" the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
individual know little best competitive effort emergence goods
“It is because every individual knows little and, in particular, because we rarely know which of us knows best best that we trust the independent and competitive efforts of many to induce the emergence of what we shall want when we see it.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
equality rights government freedom social justice totalitarian
“While an equality of rights under a limited government is possible and an essential condition of individual freedom, a claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
idealist fanatic step
“From the saintly and single-minded idealist to the fanatic is often but a step.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
emergencies pretext liberty eroded
“Emergencies” have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have eroded.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
liberty oportunity burden choice responsibility consequence
“Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions and will receive praise or blame for them. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
good money government sly roundabout
"I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of the government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something they can't stop."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
act behalf group moral restraint behaviour
“To act on behalf of a group seems to free people of many of the moral restraints which control their behaviour as individuals within the group.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
activity reasonable beings economic money invention
“The ultimate ends of the activities of reasonable beings are never economic. Money is one of the greatest instruments of freedom ever invented by man.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
freedom nature civilization design
“Though freedom is not a state of nature but an artifact of civilization, it did not arise from design.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
tradition alternative effect better
“Tradition is not good simply because it is tradition. It is for what it has given us and only so long as an alternative does not prove by its effect that it is better.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
civilization benefit knowledge possess
“Civilization rests on the fact that we all benefit from knowledge which we do not possess.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
man knowledge act intelligence operate
“Man does not know most of the rules on which he acts; and even what we call his intelligence is largely a system of rules which operate on him but which he does not know.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
freedom renunciation control society knowledge
“It is because freedom means the renunciation of direct control of individual efforts that a free society can make use of so much more knowledge than the mind of the wisest ruler could comprehend.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
knowledge facts dispersed prices coordinate value
“Fundamentally, in a system in which the knowledge of the relevant facts is dispersed among many people, prices can act to coordinate the separate actions of different people in the same way as subjective values help the individual to coördinate the parts of his plan.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
men good nature reason tradition
“What has made men good is neither nature nor reason but tradition.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
security freedom threat
“when security is understood in too absolute a sense, the general striving for it, far from increasing the chances of freedom, becomes the gravest threat to it.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
social justice state different people unequally equal
"The idea of social justice is that the state should treat different people unequally in order to make them equal."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
liberty opportunity good wrong
"Liberty is an opportunity for doing good, but this is only so when it is also an opportunity for doing wrong."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
human nature negative hatred enemy positive task
"It seems to be almost a law of human nature that it is easier for people to agree on a negative program - on the hatred of an enemy, on the envy of those better off - than on any positive task."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
surrender freedom security
"Those who are willing to surrender their freedom for security have always demanded that if they give up their full freedom it should also be taken from those not prepared to do so."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
equality material government totalitarian power
"A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
government scum top
"In government, the scum rises to the top."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
man economist unlikely good
"Any man who is only an economist is unlikely to be a good one."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
human kind shape world wish fatal conceit
"The idea that human kind can shape the world according to wish is what I call the fatal conceit"
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
coercive powers governmental agencies control democratic
"Once wide coercive powers are given to governmental agencies for particular purposes, such powers cannot be effectively controlled by democratic assemblies."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
freedom things dislike
"Freedom necessarily means that many things will be done which we do not like."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
government money fraud deception
"The history of government management of money has, except for a few short happy periods, been one of incessant fraud and deception."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
dictator liberal government
"It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
intellectual judge ideas merit fit conception world view
"It is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the intellectual that he judges new ideas not by their specific merits but by the readiness with which they fit into his general conceptions, into the picture of the world which he regards as modern or advanced."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
capitalism employment
"Capitalism created the possibility of employment."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
tragedy endeavour future ideals opposite striving for
"Is there a greater tragedy imaginable than that, in our endeavour consciously to shape our future in accordance with high ideals, we should in fact unwittingly produce the very opposite of what we have been striving for?"
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
journalist pretend competent subject understand corrupt
"And it's a necessity [for journalists] to pretend to be competent on every subject, some of which they really do not understand. They are under that necessity, I regret; I'm sorry for them. But to pretend to understand all the things you write about, and habitually to write about things you do not understand, is a very corrupting thing."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
socialism never nowhere woring-class movement
"Socialism has never and nowhere been at first a working-class movement."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
government power rule lrgal democracy despotism
"By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
secure ignorance experts
"Nothing is more securely lodged than the ignorance of the experts."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
planning dictatorship coercion enforcement
"Planning leads to dictatorship because dictatorship is the most effective instrument of coercion and the enforcement of ideals and, as such, essential if central planning on a large scale is to be possible."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
liberty responsibility inseparable
"Liberty and responsibility are inseparable."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
liberalism conservatism ideas superior wisdom
"Unlike liberalism, with its fundamental belief in the long-range power of ideas, conservatism is bound by the stock of ideas inherited at a given time. And since it does not really believe in the power of argument, its last resort is generally a claim to superior wisdom, based on some self-arrogated superior quality."
― Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)