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)
The spontaneous order of society is a marvel of human cooperation.
The greatest challenge of our time is to reconcile individual liberty with social order.
I am convinced that the future of humanity depends on the preservation of individual freedom.
The market is a process of constant adaptation and discovery.
The greatest danger to freedom is the belief that we can achieve a utopian society.
The more we try to impose our will on society, the more we destroy its vitality.
The rule of law is not about rules, but about principles.
The greatest enemy of progress is the fear of change.
The market is a mechanism for coordinating the dispersed knowledge of millions of individuals.
The greatest danger to freedom is the belief that government can solve all our problems.
The spontaneous order of society is a testament to the power of human cooperation.
The pursuit of social justice often leads to the erosion of individual liberty.
The more we try to control the future, the less we are able to adapt to it.
I am a firm believer in the power of free inquiry and open debate.
If we are to build a better world, we must remember that the ultimate source of all wealth is the human mind.
The more the state 'plans,' the more difficult does planning become for the individual.
The greatest danger to liberty today comes from the men who are most anxious to establish it.
Individual freedom is not a matter of degree, but of kind. It is either present or absent.
The ultimate effect of the pursuit of equality is to make everybody equally poor.
The demand for security is a demand for protection against the risks of life, and these risks are inseparable from life itself.
Contemporaries of Friedrich Hayek
Other Economicss born within 50 years of Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992).