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Quote by Friedrich August von Hayek

“The more I learn about the evolution of ideas, the more I have become aware that I am simply an unrepentant Old Whig-with the stress on the "old.”

Quote by Friedrich August von Hayek

Author

Friedrich August von Hayek

Friedrich August von Hayek, born on May 8, 1899, in Austria, and died on March 23, 1992, in the United Kingdom, was one of the most distinguished economists of the 20th century. He is renowned for his profound insights into the free market economy and his critical views on socialism. more

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“Even when men approve of the same arrangements, it must be asked whether they approve of them because they exist or because they are desirable in themselves. The common resistance to the collectivist tide should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the belief in integral freedom is based on an essentially forward-looking attitude and not on any nostalgic longing for the past or a romantic admiration for what has been.”

Men Should Has Beens Facts Past Belief Common Attitude Longing Resistance Admiration Tides Arrangements Obscure Desirable Nostalgic

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“The conservatives have already accepted a large part of the collectivist creed-a creed that has governed policy for so long that many of its institutions have come to be accepted as a matter of course and have become a source of pride to "conservative" parties who created them. Here the believer in freedom cannot but conflict with the conservative and take an essentially radical position, directed against popular prejudices, entrenched positions, and firmly established privileges. Follies and abuses are no better for having long been established principles of folly.”

“There may be few instances in which the superstition that only measurable magnitudes can be important has done positive harm in the economic field: but the present inflation and employment problems are a very serious one.”

May Important Done Problem Economic Fields Serious Harm Instance Employment Superstitions Inflation Magnitude

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“The confidence in the unlimited power of science is only too often based on a false belief that the scientific method consists in the application of a ready-made technique, or in imitating the form rather than the substance of scientific procedure, as if one needed only to follow some cooking recipes to solve all social problems. It sometimes almost seems as if the techniques of science were more easily learnt than the thinking that shows us what the problems are and how to approach them.”

“If I am not mistaken, psychology, psychiatry and some branches of sociology, not to speak about the so-called philosophy of history, are even more affected by what I have called the scientistic prejudice, and by specious claims of what science can achieve.”

Ifs Philosophy Speak Psychology Achieve Claims Prejudice Branches Affected Mistaken Sociology Psychiatry

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“The chief point we must remember is that the great and rapid advance of the physical sciences took place in fields where it proved that explanation and prediction could be based on laws which accounted for the observed phenomena as functions of comparatively few variables - either particular facts or relative frequencies of events.”

Facts Remember Law Events Fields Particular Function Chiefs Explanation Relative Predictions Rapids Frequency Variables Physical Science

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“I have come to feel strongly that the greatest service I can still render to my fellow men would be that I could make the speakers and writers among them thoroughly ashamed ever again to employ the term "social justice.”

Men Feels Stills I Can Would Be Social Term Justice Fellows Social Justice Ashamed Speakers Fellow Man

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“Socialism is simply a re-assertion of that tribal ethics whose gradual weakening had made an approach to the Great Society possible.”

Made Approach Ethics Socialism Assertion Weakening Great Society

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“We must shed the illusion that we can deliberately "create the future of mankind." This is the final conclusion of the forty years which I have now devoted to the study of these problems”

Years Problem Study Mankind Illusion Finals Conclusion Forty Devoted Shed Future Of Mankind

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“There exists no third principle for the organisation of the economics process which can be rationally chosen to achieve any desirable ends, in addition to either a functioning market in which nobody can conclusively determine how well-off particular groups or individuals will be, or a central direction where a group organised for power determines it.”

Wells Ends Individual Process Principles Groups Achieve Particular Economics Thirds Determine Chosen Desirable Organisation Organised

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek