Friedrich Hayek
Champion of classical liberalism, Road to Serfdom
Most quoted
"The marvel is that in a case like that of a scarcity of one raw material, without an order being issued, without more than perhaps a handful of people knowing the cause, tens of thousands of people whose identity could not be ascertained by months of investigation, are made to use the material or its products more sparingly."
— from The Use of Knowledge in Society, 1945
"I am convinced that if it were the result of deliberate human design, and if the people guided by the price changes understood that their decisions have significance far beyond their immediate aim, this mechanism would have been acclaimed as one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind."
— from The Use of Knowledge in Society, 1945
"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 trying to do better."
— from The Constitution of Liberty, 1960
All quotes by Friedrich Hayek (235)
I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.
The fact that the wisest men have often been mistaken does not mean that we should cease to believe in the possibility of knowledge.
In government the general tendency is to create around its own operations a veil of obscurity.
The power which a multiple millionaire, who may be my neighbor and perhaps my employer, has over me is very much less than that which the smallest fonctionnaire possesses who wields the coercive power of the state.
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 chain is still to choose a prison.
The ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain, by acquiring all power to itself, but to spread freedom among the citizens.
I have come to the conclusion that the practice of central planning cannot achieve the ends for which it is advocated.
The doctrine of precedent is a restraint on the arrogance of power.
Man has achieved his present level of civilization by learning to suppress his instincts.
The advantage of a free market is that it allows people to pursue their own ends without interfering with others.
Totalitarianism is not only an excess of state power but also a lack of effective restraints on that power.
The growth of knowledge is of such a special nature that we can never know in advance what we will know.
In the long run even the strongest become just means to an end, and are in danger of being sacrificed to that end.
The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.
Civilization is a complex system of rules which we obey without knowing why.
It is not the knowledge of the great that is important, but the knowledge of the many.
The history of government is a struggle against the abuse of power.
We are led by ideas, not by men.
The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
Socialism is the abolition of rational economy.
Contemporaries of Friedrich Hayek
Other Economicss born within 50 years of Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992).