Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes - Page 3

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• To discover the meaning of what is called "social justice" has been one of my chief preoccupations for more than 10 years. I have failed in this endeavour or rather, have reached the conclusion that, with reference to society of free men, the phrase has no meaning whatever.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Men, Years, Justice

  "New Studies in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas". Book by Friedrich Hayek, The Atavism of Social Justice (ch. 5), 1978.

  55 Copy quote

• Through the inevitable mismanagement of resources and goods at the disposal of the state, all forms of collectivism lead eventually to tyranny.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  States, Form, Resources

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• Money is one of the greatest instruments of freedom ever invented by man. It is money which in existing society opens an astounding range of choice to the poor man, a range greater than that which not many generations ago was open to the wealthy

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Men, Choices, Generations

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• We must face the fact that the preservation of individual freedom is incompatible with a full satisfaction of our views of distributive justice.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Views, Umpires, Justice

  "Individualism: True and False". Book by Friedrich August von Hayek, 1945.

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• 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

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• Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Freedom, Government, Our Generation

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, 1960.

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• The idea that human kind can shape the world according to wish is what I call the fatal conceit

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Ideas, Wish, Shapes

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• A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Equality, Government, Liberty

  "Law, Legislation and Liberty" by Friedrich August von Hayek, Vol. 2 : The Mirage of Social Justice, (Ch. 9), 1976.

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• The greatest danger to liberty today comes from the men who are most needed and most powerful in modern government, namely, the efficient expert administrators exclusively concerned with what they regard as the public good.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Powerful, Men, Liberty

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part III: "Freedom in the Welfare State". Chapter 17: "The Decline of Socialism and The Rise of the Welfare State", 1960.

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• If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Wish, Liberty, Essentials

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by F.A. Hayek, Chap. 6: "Equality, Value and Merit," Routledge (p. 77), 1960.

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• By the time any view becomes a majority view, it is no longer the best view: somebody will already have advanced beyond the point which the majority have reached.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Views, Majority

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

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• To combat depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection -- a procedure which can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Evil, Deception

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• 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

  Powerful, Organization, Liberty

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part I: "The Value of Freedom". Chapter 2: "The Creative Power of a Free Civilization", 1960.

  17 Copy quote

• The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Liberty, Principles

  "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 10 : Why The Worst Get On Top, 1940 - 1943.

  19 Copy quote

• Socialism has never and nowhere been at first a working-class movement.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Class, Movement, Firsts

  "Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Chapter 12: "The Intellectuals and Socialism", 1967.

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• Socialist thought owes its appeal to the young largely to its visionary character; the very courage to indulge in Utopian thought is in this respect a source of strength for socialism which traditional liberalism sadly lacks. Speculation about general principles provides an opportunity for the play of the imagination of those who are unencumbered by much knowledge of the facts of present-day life. Their ideas suffer from inherent contradictions, and any attempt to put them into practice must produce something utterly different from what they expect.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Philosophy, Character, Opportunity

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• 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

  Opportunity, Liberty, Doing Good

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Chap. 5 : Responsibility and Freedom, 1960.

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• You can have economic freedom without political freedom, but you cannot have political freedom without economic freedom.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Government, Political, Economic

  "New Vogue for Critic of Keynes" by John M. Geddes, The New York Times, May 7, 1979.

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• Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances, but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the bad ... Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Freedom, Balance, Doe

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, 1960.

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• 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

  Believe, Self, Ideas

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

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• Socialism constitutes a threat to the present and future welfare of the human race, in the sense that neither socialism nor any other known substitute for the market order could sustain the current population of the world.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Race, Order, Population

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• The mischievous idea that all public needs should be satisfied by compulsory organization and that all the means that individuals are willing to devote to pubic purposes should be under the control of government, is wholly alien to the basic principles of a free society.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Government, Organization

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• The [classical] liberal, of course, does not deny that there are some superior people -- he is not an egalitarian -- but he denies that anyone has authority to decide who these superior people are.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  People, Doe, Individualism

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• The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Important, Liberty, Libertarian

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

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Practice, Politics, Socialism

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