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Hayek Quotes

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Hayek Quotes

“There was frequently a moral lesson lurking just below the surface in Hayek’s accounts, usually having to do with Keynes’s overweening self- confidence and the dangers of hubris. His retelling of their final conversation is illustrative. Hayek had asked Keynes whether he was at all concerned about the uses to which his disciples were putting his theories, and in particular, whether a theory that had made sense in “the age of plenty” of the 1930s might not stimulate inflation as the economy neared full employment. Keynes assured Hayek that were his theories ever to become harmful, he could turn public opinion against them like that, and snapped his fingers. Unfortunately, as Hayek concluded, “six weeks later he was dead”.”

Public OpinionHayekKeynes
Book:Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950
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“A number of years ago, 1944, Friedrich Hayek wrote this very influential book, The Road to Serfdom. He worried that the creation of the welfare state, a strong government helping individuals would lead to authoritarianism. We now know that he was wrong. If we look around the world, populism, authoritarianism is associated not with government doing too much, but doing too little. By doing too little, it has given rise to discontent that threatens our democracy and threatens our ability to respond to the major challenges that we face.”

GovernmentDemocracyEconomicsAuthoritarianismWelfare StateHayekFriedrich HayekSocial Services
Author:Joseph Stiglitz
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“Who imagines that there exist any common ideals of distributive justice such as will make the Norwegian fisherman consent to forgo the prospect of economic improvement in order to help his Portuguese fellow, or the Dutch worker to pay more for his bicycle to help the Coventry mechanic, or the French. peasant to pay more taxes to assist the industrialisation of Italy?”

CapitalismEuropeSocialismHayekEuRoad To SerfdomEuropean Federation
Book:The Road to Serfdom
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“Throughout his life Hayek wanted to affirm his identity with the classic liberal tradition, believing that the true cause of the crises leading to two world wars was the steady increase increase in the power of the state, and its misuse in the pursuit of unattainable goals. 'Social justice' was the name of one of these goals, and Hayek expressly dismissed the expression as a piece of deceptive Newspeak, used to advance large-scale injustice in the name of its opposite.”

Social JusticeHayekSocial Justice Warriors
Book:Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition
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“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. To the naive mind that can conceive of order only as the product of deliberate arrangement, it may seem absurd that in complex conditions order, and adaptation to the unknown, can be achieved more effectively by decentralizing decisions and that a division of authority will actually extend the possibility of overall order. Yet that decentralization actually leads to more information being taken into account.”

EconomicsSocialismHayek
Book:The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism
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“With the growth of market individualism comes a corollary desire to look for collective, democratic responses when major dislocations of financial collapse, unemployment, heightened inequality, runaway inflation, and the like occur. The more such dislocations occur, the more powerful and internalized, Hayek insists, neoliberal ideology must become; it must become embedded in the media, in economic talking heads, in law and the jurisprudence of the courts, in government policy, and in the souls of participants. Neoliberal ideology must become a machine or engine that infuses economic life as well as a camera that provides a snapshot of it. That means, in turn, that the impersonal processes of regulation work best if courts, churches, schools, the media, music, localities, electoral politics, legislatures, monetary authorities, and corporate organizations internalize and publicize these norms.”

CritiqueNeoliberalismHayek
Book:The Fragility of Things: Self-Organizing Processes, Neoliberal Fantasies, and Democratic Activism
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“Zwolennicy rynku używają niekiedy argumentu, że korupcja występująca w gospodarce centralnie planowanej niweczy w istocie wszelkie przewagi, które system ten mógłby posiadać. Ci sami dyskutanci nie rozpatrują jednak na ogół wpływu, jaki wywierają standardy moralne na funkcjonowanie gospodarki rynkowej. Nie może nas to dziwić, ponieważ gdyby zajęli się bliżej tą sprawą, to musieliby dojść do przekonania, że ograniczenie jednostkowych egoizmów jest zasadniczym spoiwem społeczeństwa. Zwolennicy Hayka i Miltona Friedmana wierzą, tak samo jak marksiści, iż jedno lekarstwo może zwalczyć wszelkie choroby; własność prywatna i wolny rynek spełniają w ich doktrynie taką samą rolę, jaką w marksizmie pełni kolektywizacja i centralne planowanie. (Maxa Webera olśnienia i pomyłki, ss. 174-175)”

HayekMarksFriedmanGospodarkaCentralne PlanowanieKolektywizacjaLibertarianizmMarksizmMoralnośćśćWolny RynkekWłasność Prywatna
Book:Max Weber's Insights and Errors
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“But if those coming forward with elaborate plans for the “reformation” of society are not really interested in the cause of humanity, what does motivate them? Simply the desire for power: On this point Lewis is in emphatic agreement with both Hayek and Mises. Hayek: “[T]he desire to organize social life according to a single plan itself springs largely from a desire for power.” Mises: “Every dictator plans to rear, raise, feed and train his fellow citizens as the breeder does his cattle. His aim is not to make them happy but to bring them into a condition which renders him, the dictator, happy.”

HumanityHayekDictatorsMises
Author:J.R.Nyquist
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“The everyday practice of what is right is not derived from a rule, not only because the custom is inarticulable /in toto/, but also because a rule not summoned from custom cannot anticipate the unknowable local circumstances under which it might conflict with another rule subsumed within the larger community practice of what is right (69).”

EconomicsHayek
Book:The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind
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“On the more technical kind of economics my advance was impeded by my inadequate knowledge of mathematics which I had never found helpful in my work, even at such times as when I had temporarily mastered the particular techniques required, but felt not to be worth the effort to acquire real competence merely to be able to refute or criticize the work of others—as I now recognize, a serious mistake”

MathematicsHayek
Book:Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950
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“At the heart of capitalism is the unification of knowledge and power. As Friedrich Hayek, the leader of the Austrian school of economics, put it, "To assume all the knowledge to be given to a single mind... is to disregard everything that is important and significant in the real world." Because knowledge is dispersed, power must be as well.”

WorldMindWellsHeartImportantRealSchoolGivenLeaderCapitalismEconomicsAssumingSignificantReal WorldDisregardUnificationHayekKnowledge And PowerFriedrich Hayek
Book:Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How it is Revolutionizing our World
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“If, of course, one builds into the concept of an 'individual' all that Professor Hayek does in his Road To Serfdom, Individualism and Economic Order and many other works, which is, to put it briefly, the whole of laisser-faire economic theory, then plainly man as such a programmed predator has very little interest in being fraternal, or very little chance.”

IfsMenLittlesDoeWholeOrderCoursesIndividualInterestChanceEconomicTheoryConceptsProfessorsIndividualismPredatorHayekEconomic TheoryFraternalEconomic OrderRoad To Serfdom
Book:In Defense of Politics
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“Because I also write, I really admire Latinas who are creating content. That's the next step. We can talk about seeing more Latinas on TV all day long, but it's about what we can do to make that happen. Women like Eva Longoria, Sofía Vergara, Jennifer Lopez, and Salma Hayek are producing a lot of great shows that feature Latinas. Those are the women who inspire me because they're not just acting; they're creating for the future.”

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Author:Chrissie Fit
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“Even philosophies who have denounced pseudosciences like psychoanalysis, have condoned pseudoscientific economic theories like neoclassical microeconomics. It is far safer and easier to criticize Freud and Jung than to criticize Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, because the latter are backed by political movements whereas the former are not.”

PhilosophyPoliticalEconomicMovementTheoryEasierFormerLatterCriticizePsychoanalysisPseudoscienceMiltonJungPolitical MovementsHayekEconomic TheoryFriedrich HayekMicroeconomics
Author:Mario Bunge
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“Most people are oblivious to F.A. Hayek's insight that the critical information needed to run an economy - or even 15 percent of one - doesn't exist in any one place where it is accessible to central planners. Instead, it is scattered piecemeal among millions of people. All those people put together are far wiser and better informed than Congress could ever be. Only markets - private property, free exchange and the price system - can put this knowledge at the disposal of entrepreneurs and consumers, ensuring the system will serve the people and not just the political class.”

PeopleRunningTogetherPoliticalClassMillionsEconomyInformationNeededPercentEntrepreneurPropertyCongressInsightCriticalConsumersWiserPrivate PropertyObliviousPlannersHayek
Author:John Stossel
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“Friedrich Hayek made the point that one of the keystones of socialism is the denial of individual responsibility. Thus, the crusade for socialism always included attacks on individual responsibility. For if individuals do not have free will, and are not responsible for their actions, then their lives must be controlled somehow - preferably by the state - according to the socialists. They must be regulated, regimented and controlled - for their own good.”

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Author:Thomas DiLorenzo
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“Here we have the heart of the difference between Hayek and Keynes: one knew that markets work to give us the best of all possible worlds, while governments create and exacerbate malfunctions; the other imagined that governments were somehow capable of both perceiving and correcting malfunctions by means of the printing press, provided the right technocrats are in charge.”

WorldGivingHeartMeanGovernmentDifferencesCapablePressesPrintingCorrectingPrinting PressHayekKeynesMalfunction
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“The government can always rescue the markets or interfere with contract law whenever it deems convenient with little or no apparent cost. (Investors believe this now and, worse still, the government believes it as well. We are probably doomed to a lasting legacy of government tampering with financial markets and the economy, which is likely to create the mother of all moral hazards. The government is blissfully unaware of the wisdom of Friedrich Hayek: "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.")”

KnowsMenBelieveWellsLittlesStillsGovernmentLawMotherMoralEconomyImagineDesignCostEconomicsTasksFinancialCuriousLegacyLastingContractsInvestorsRescueInterfereDoomedConvenientHazardsFinancial MarketsHayekFriedrich HayekLasting LegacyMoral Hazard
Author:Seth Klarman
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“Hayek made a quite fruitful suggestion, made contemporaneously by the psychologist Donald Hebb, that whatever kind of encounter the sensory system has with the world, a corresponding event between a particular cell in the brain and some other cell carrying the information from the outside word must result in reinforcement of the connection between those cells. These day, this is known as a Hebbian synapse, but von Hayek quite independently came upon the idea. I think the essence of his analysis still remains with us.”

ThinkingWorldKindMadeStillsIdeasResultsBrainKnownEventsInformationParticularConnectionsEssenceRemainsCellsThese DaysAnalysisEncountersSuggestionsPsychologistSensoryCorrespondingHayekReinforcementVon Hayek
Author:Gerald Edelman
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“The first proponent of cortical memory networks on a major scale was neither a neuroscientist nor a computer scientist but .. a Viennes economist: Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992). A man of exceptionally broad knowledge and profound insight into the operation of complex systems, Hayek applied such insight with remarkable success to economics (Nobel Prize, 1974), sociology, political science, jurisprudence, evolutionary theory, psychology, and brain science (Hayek, 1952).”

MenFirstsPoliticalMemoriesBrainPsychologyTheoryComputerMajorsEconomicsScientistProfoundComplexesInsightScalesOperationsRemarkablePrizeBroadsEconomistSociologyPolitical ScienceNobelNobel PrizeComplex SystemsHayekJurisprudenceBrain ScienceVon Hayek
Author:Joaquin Fuster
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“Since the idea that modification of synaptic function can provide a basis for memory arose shortly after the first anatomical description of the synapse a number of models (Hebb 1949 . . Hayek 1952 . . Kendel 1981) have been proposed in which various cognitive activities are represented by combinations of the firing patterns of individual neurons.”

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Author:Gerald Edelman
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“Friedrich Hayek .. seems to have been the first to postulate what is the core of this paper, namely, the idea of memory and perception represented in widely distributed networks of interconnected cortical cells. Subsequently this idea has received theoretical support, however tangential, from the fields of cognitive psychology, connectionism and artificial intelligence. Empirically, it is well supported by the physiological study and neuroimaging of working memory.”

FirstsWellsHas BeensIdeasSeemsMemoriesSupportStudyPsychologyFieldsPaperPerceptionCoreCellsArtificial IntelligenceArtificialTheoreticalCognitiveInterconnectedPhysiologicalHayekFriedrich Hayek
Author:Joaquin Fuster
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“Friedrich Hayek, who died on March 23, 1992 at age 92, was arguably the greatest social scientist of the twentieth century. By the time of his death, his fundamental way of thought had supplanted the system of John Maynard Keynes - his chief intellectual rival of the century - in the battle since the 1930s for the minds of economists and the policies of governments.”

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Author:Julian Simon
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“If the central contest of the twentieth century has pitted capitalism against socialism, then F. A. Hayek has been its central figure. He helped us to understand why capitalism won by a knockout. It was Hayek who elaborated the basic argument demonstrating that central planning was nothing else but an impoverishing fantasy.”

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Author:Kenneth Minogue
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“. . I think the Adam Smith role was played in this cycle i.e. the late twentieth century collapse of socialism in which the idea of free-markets succeeded first, and then special events catalyzed a complete change of socio-political policy in countries around the world by Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“For Dicey, writing in 1885, and for me reading him some seventy years later, the rule of law still had a very English, or at least Anglo-Saxon, feel to it. It was later, through Hayek's masterpieces "The Constitution of Liberty" and "Law, Legislation and Liberty" that I really came to think this principle as having wider application.”

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Author:Margaret Thatcher
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“I was 25 years old and pursuing my doctorate in economics when I was allowed to spend six months of postgraduate studies in Naples, Italy. I read the Western economic textbooks and also the more general work of people like Hayek. By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market. In 1968, I was glad at the political liberalism of the Dubcek Prague Spring, but I was very critical of the Third Way they pursued in economics.”

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Author:Vaclav Klaus
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“There is no figure who had more of an influence, no person had more of an influence on the intellectuals behind the Iron Curtain than Friedrich Hayek. His books were translated and published by the underground and black market editions, read widely, and undoubtedly influenced the climate of opinion that ultimately brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“If one writing contributed more than any other to the framework in which this work Sowell's Knowledge and Decisions developed, it would be an essay entitled 'The Use of Knowledge in Society,' published in the American Economic Review of September 1945, and written by F. A. Hayek . . In this plain and apparently simple essay was a deeply penetrating insight into the way societies function and malfunction, and clues as to why they are so often and so profoundly misunderstood.”

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Author:Thomas Sowell
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