Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes About Politics

Quotes about: Politics

• If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialist.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Politics, Economics, Socialist

• The idea of social justice is that the state should treat different people unequally in order to make them equal.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Order, Ideas, People

• 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. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Freedom, Mean, Responsibility

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part I: "The Value of Freedom". Chapter 5: "Responsibility and Freedom", 1960.

• Socialism can only be put into practice only by methods which most socialists disapprove.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Practice, Politics, Socialism

• Economic control is not merely control of a sector of human life which can be separated from the rest; it is the control of the means for all our ends. And whoever has sole control of the means must also determine which ends are to be served, which values are to be rates higher and which lower, in short, what men should believe and strive for.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Believe, Mean, Men

  "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 7 : Economic Control and Totalitarianism, 1940 - 1943.

• The state itself becomes more and more identified with the interests of those who run things than with the interests of the people in general.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Running, People, Political

• It is also true that the less possible it becomes for a man to acquire a new fortune, the more must the existing fortunes appear as privileges for which there is no justification. Policy is then certain to aim at taking these fortunes out of private hands, either by the slow process of heavy taxation of inheritance or by the quicker one of outright confiscation. A system based on private property and control of the means of production presupposes that such property and control can be acquired by any successful man.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Successful, Men

• It is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the activities of evil men and that if only good men (like ourselves, naturally) wielded power, all would be well. That view requires only emotion and self-praise - easy to come by and satisfying as well. To understand why it is that 'good' men in positions of power will produce evil, while the ordinary man without power but able to engage in voluntary cooperation with his neighbors will produce good, requires analysis and thought, subordinating emotions to the rational.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Believe, Men, Position Of Power

• The moral consequences of totalitarian propaganda...are destructive of all morals because they undermind one of the foundations of all morals: the sense of and respect for truth.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Foundation, Politics, Moral

• When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will inevitably destroy itself.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Power, Democracy, Politics

• The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Moving, Successful, Power

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Chap. 7 : Majority Rules, 1960.

• In the United States, where it has become almost impossible to use "liberal" in the sense in which I have used it, the term "libertarian" has been used instead. It may be the answer; but for my part I find it singularly unattractive. For my taste it carries too much the flavor of a manufactured term and of a substitute. What I should want is a word which describes the party of life, the party that favors free growth and spontaneous evolution. But I have racked my brain unsuccessfully to find a descriptive term which commends itself.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Party, Growth, Brain

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Postscript: Why I Am Not a Conservative, 1960.

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