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

Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes

Economist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIndividualIfsLibertyEconomicsMenPeopleEconomicGovernmentMayFactsMeanParticularShouldUseEndsHumansKnowsRoad To SerfdomHas BeensEconomy

Famous Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes

“It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason rationally to comprehend its own limitations. It is essential for the growth of reason that as individuals we should bow to forces and obey principles which we cannot hope fully to understand, yet on which the advance and even the preservation of civilization depend.”

ShouldHumansMayImportantReasonIndividualForceDifficultGrowthPrinciplesDependsCivilizationProveEssentialsTasksLimitationBowsPreservationHuman Reason
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“Every change in conditions will make necessary some change in the use of resources, in the direction and kind of human activities, in habits and practices. And each change in the actions of those affected in the first instance will require further adjustments that will gradually extend through the whole of society. Every change thus in a sense creates a "problemfor society, even though no single individual perceives it as such; it is gradually "solvedby the establishment of a new overall adjustment.”

FirstsHumansKindWholeUseActionIndividualPracticeSocietyConditionsHabitActivityResourcesInstancePerceiveAffectedEstablishmentAdjustmentHuman Activity
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“I am convinced that if the market system 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 aims, this mechanism would have been acclaimed as one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind.”

PeopleIfsMindHumansHas BeensDecisionResultsDesignUnderstoodAimConvincedTriumphSignificanceHuman MindMechanismDeliberate
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“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.”

MenShouldBelieveHumansMeanEndsValuesPoliticsEconomicHigherStriveRateDetermineHuman LifeSoleRoad To Serfdom
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“Human envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as 'the most anti-social and evil of all passions.'”

HumansPassionEvilSocialJusticeLibertyEconomicConditionsSourceDemandEssentialsEconomicsTreatsSocial JusticeEnvyPreservationDiscontentSanctionsFree SocietyMillsCountenanceAnti Social
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“Capitalism is not only a better form of organizing human activity than any deliberate design, any attempt to organize it to satisfy particular preferences, to aim at what people regard as beautiful or pleasant order, but it is also the indispensable condition for just keeping that population alive which exists already in the world. I regard the preservation of what is known as the capitalist system, of the system of free markets and the private ownership of the means of production, as an essential condition of the very survival of mankind.”

PeopleWorldHumansMeanBeautifulFormOrderKnownLibertyAliveEconomicConditionsMankindDesignParticularActivityEssentialsSurvivalCapitalismEconomicsRegardAimPopulationProductionsPleasantCapitalistOwnershipOrganizeIndispensablePreservationPreferenceFree MarketDeliberateHuman Activity
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