Quotessence
Home / Authors / Friedrich August von Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek

Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes

Economist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIndividualIfsLibertyEconomicsMenPeopleEconomicGovernmentMayFacts

Famous Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes

“Inflation is probably the most important single factor in that vicious circle wherein one kind of government action makes more and more government control necessary. For this reason all those who wish to stop the drift toward increasing government control should concentrate their effort on monetary policy.”

ShouldKindImportantReasonGovernmentActionWishEffortPolicyCirclesFactorsViciousInflationMonetaryMonetary PolicyVicious Circles
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“To rest the case for equal treatment of national or racial minorities on the assumption that they do not differ from other men is implicitly to admit that factual inequality would justify unequal treatment, and the proof that some differences do, in fact, exist would not be long in forthcoming. It is of the essence of the demand for equality before the law that people should be treated alike in spite of the fact that they are different.”

PeopleMenShouldLongDifferentFactsLawDifferencesCasesDemandEqualEssenceProofTreatedInequalityAssumptionSpiteMinoritiesTreatmentJustifyFactualForthcomingEqual Treatment
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“Our submission to general principles is necessary because we cannot be guided in our practical action by full knowledge and evaluation of the consequences. So long as men are not omniscient, the only way in which freedom can be given to the individual is by such general rules to delimit the sphere in which the decision is his. There can be no freedom if the government is not limited to particular kinds of action but can use its powers in any ways which serve particular ends.”

IfsMenWayKindLongEndsUseGovernmentActionIndividualGivenFreedomDecisionPrinciplesParticularConsequencePracticalsSpheresSubmissionEvaluationOmniscient
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“The importance of our being free to do a particular thing has nothing to do with the question of whether we or the majority are ever likely to make use of that particular possibility. To grant no more freedom than all can exercise would be to misconceive its function completely. The freedom that will be used by only one man in a million may be more important to society and more beneficial to the majority than any freedom that we all use.”

MenMayImportantUseWould BeUsedFreedomMillionsPossibilityParticularExerciseFunctionImportanceMajorityGrantsOne ManBeneficialBeing Free
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“That democratic socialism, the great utopia of the last few generations, is not only unachievable, but that to strive for it produces something so utterly different that few of those who wish it would be prepared to accept the consequences, many will not believe until the connection has been laid bare in all its aspects.”

BelieveHas BeensDifferentWould BeLastsWishAcceptingGenerationsProduceConsequenceAspectConnectionsDemocraticPreparedStriveSocialismBe PreparedUtopiaDemocratic Socialism
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“..where effective competition can be created, it is a better way of guiding individual efforts than any other... regards competition as superior not only because it is in most circumstances the most efficient method known but even more because it is the only method by which our activities can be adjusted to each other without coercive or arbitrary intervention of authority.”

WayIndividualEffortKnownCircumstancesActivityAuthorityCapitalismRegardMethodCompetitionSuperiorsEfficientFree MarketArbitraryInterventionBetter WaysIndividual Effort
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“What our generation has forgotten is that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not. It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves.”

PeopleMeanImportantIndividualActingGenerationsCapitalismPropertyForgottenProductionsGuaranteesDividedFree MarketPrivate PropertyOur GenerationRoad To Serfdom
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“The younger generation of today has grown up in a world in which in school and press the spirit of commercial enterprise has been represented as disreputable and the making of profit as immoral, where to employ a hundred people is represented as exploitation but to command the same number as honorable.”

PeopleWorldHas BeensTodaySchoolSpiritNumbersGenerationsHundredCapitalismPressesProfitCommandEnterpriseExploitationHonorableImmoralFree MarketYounger Generation
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow with the advance of science." Unfortunately, the popular effect of this scientific advance has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range of our ignorance is steadily diminishing and that we can therefore aim at more comprehensive and deliberate control of all human activities. It is for this reason that those intoxicated by the advance of knowledge so often become the enemies of freedom.”

MindHumansHas BeensReasonWisdomBeliefGrowsEnemyModernEffectsIgnoranceActivityScientistAimRangeDeliberateComprehensiveHuman ActivityModern ScienceIntoxicated
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In the process by which opinion is formed, it is very probable that, 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. It is because we do not yet know which of the many competing new opinions will prove itself the best that we wait until it has gained sufficient support.”

KnowsWisdomWaitingProcessUnderstandingViewsOpinionSupportProgressProveMajoritySufficientCompetingProve ItKnowledge And UnderstandingMajority Opinion
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“A general flat minimum-wage law for all industry is permissible, but I do not think that it is a particularly wise method of achieving the end. I know much better methods of providing a minimum for everybody. But once you turn from laying down a general minimum for all industry to decreeing particular and different minimum for different industries, then, of course, you make the price mechanism inoperative, because it is no longer the price mechanism which will guide people between industries and trades.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsDifferentEndsLawTurnsCoursesWiseAchieveParticularIndustryMethodTradeGuidesFlatsMechanismProvidingMinimumMinimum WageLiving WageLaying Down
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“As long-term institutions, I am totally against dictatorships. But a dictatorship may be a necessary system for a transitional period... Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism. My personal impression - and this is valid for South America - is that in Chile, for example, we will witness a transition from a dictatorial government to a liberal government.”

MayLongGovernmentAmericaTermExamplePeriodsInstitutionsDemocraticSouthImpressionWitnessLong TermLiberalismTransitionDictatorshipDictatorLackingChileSouth AmericaDemocratic Government
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“It is, indeed, part of the liberal attitude to assume that, especially in the economic field, the self-regulating forces of the market will somehow bring about the required adjustments to new conditions, although no one can foretell how they will do this in a particular instance. There is perhaps no single factor contributing so much to people”

PeopleSelfForceAttitudeEconomicConditionsFieldsParticularAssumingFactorsInstanceConservatismAdjustmentContributing
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image