Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes - Page 5

Quotes about:

Once wide coercive powers are given to governmental agencies for particular purposes, such powers cannot be effectively controlled by democratic assemblies.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Agency, Purpose, Assembly

"The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part I: "The Value of Freedom". Chapter 7: "Majority Rules", 1960.

10 Copy quote
We must shed the illusion that we can deliberately 'create the future of mankind'

Friedrich August von Hayek

Illusion, Mankind, Future Of Mankind

"Law, Legislation and Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 18 : The Containment of Power and the Dethronement of Politics, 1973.

8 Copy quote
Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom. As such it is by no means infallible or certain. Nor must we forget that there has often been much more cultural and spiritual freedom under an autocratic rule than under some democracies and it is at least conceivable that under the government of a very homogeneous and doctrinaire majority democratic government might be as oppressive as the worst dictatorship.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Spiritual, Mean, Government

9 Copy quote
To create conditions in which competition will be as effective as possible, to prevent fraud and deception, to break up monopolies- these tasks provide a wide and unquestioned field for state activity.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Competition, Deception, Tasks

14 Copy quote
I use throughout the term 'liberal' in the original, nineteenth-century sense in which it is still current in Britain. In current American usage it often means very nearly the opposite of this. It has been part of the camouflage of leftish movements in this country, helped by muddleheadedness of many who really believe in liberty, that 'liberal' has come to mean the advocacy of almost every kind of government control.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Country, Believe, Mean

13 Copy quote
It is one of the most fatal illusions that, by substituting negotiations between states or organized groups for competition for markets or for raw materials, international friction would be reduced. This would merely put a contest of force in the place of what can only metaphorically be called the "struggle" of competition and would transfer to powerful and armed states, subject to no superior law, the rivalries which between individuals had to be decided without recourse to force.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Powerful, Struggle, Law

"The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 15 : The Prospects of International Order, 1940 - 1943.

7 Copy quote
If democracy is a means rather than an end, its limits must be determined in the light of the purpose we want it to serve.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Mean, Light, Democracy

"The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek (p. 107), 1960.

7 Copy quote
Without a theory the facts are silent.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Facts, Silent, Theory

8 Copy quote
Socialism has never and nowhere been at first a working-class movement.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Class, Movement, Firsts

"Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Chapter 12: "The Intellectuals and Socialism", 1967.

11 Copy quote
Nowhere has democracy ever worked well without a great measure of local self-government, providing a school of political training for the people at large as much as for their future leaders.

Friedrich August von Hayek

School, Government, Self

"The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 15 : The Prospects of International Order, 1940 - 1943.

9 Copy quote
It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Government, Democracy, Way

"El Mercurio" Newspaper, 1981.

18 Copy quote
It is also true that the less possible it becomes for a man to acquire a new fortune, the more must the existing fortunes appear as privileges for which there is no justification. Policy is then certain to aim at taking these fortunes out of private hands, either by the slow process of heavy taxation of inheritance or by the quicker one of outright confiscation. A system based on private property and control of the means of production presupposes that such property and control can be acquired by any successful man.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Mean, Successful, Men

15 Copy quote
Never will man penetrate deeper into error than when he is continuing on a road which has led him to great success

Friedrich August von Hayek

Men, Errors, Continuing On

7 Copy quote
Wherever liberty as we understand it has been destroyed, this has almost always been done in the name of some new freedom promised to the people

Friedrich August von Hayek

Names, People, Liberty

16 Copy quote
It is not the source but the limitation of power which prevents it from being
arbitrary.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Arbitrary, Source, Limitation

10 Copy quote
It is because freedom means the renunciation of direct control of individual efforts that a free society can make use of so much more knowledge than the mind of the wisest ruler could comprehend.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Freedom, Mean, Individual Effort

11 Copy quote
Capitalism created the possibility of employment.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Employment, Possibility, Capitalism

10 Copy quote
Competition means decentralized planning by many separate persons.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Mean, Entrepreneur, Competition

9 Copy quote
As is true with respect to other great evils, the measures by which war might be made altogether impossible for the future may well be worse than even war itself.

Friedrich August von Hayek

War, Evil, May

"The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 15 : The Prospects of International Order, 1940 - 1943.

6 Copy quote
It is when it is contended that "in a democracy right is what the majority makes it to be" that democracy degenerates into demagoguery.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Democracy, Majority, Degenerates

"The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek (p. 94), 1960.

32 Copy quote
We must not forget that … monetary policy all over the world has followed the advice of the stabilizers. It is high time that their influence, which has already done harm enough, should be overthrown.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Advice, Done, World

10 Copy quote
... that order generated without design can far outstrip plans men consciously contrive

Friedrich August von Hayek

Men, Order, Design

6 Copy quote
... I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much undetermined and unpredictable, to a pretense of exact knowledge that is likely to be false.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Imperfect, Unpredictable, Ifs

8 Copy quote
Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Independence, Granted, Economy

"The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, p. 83, 1960.

8 Copy quote
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.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Thinking, Cooking, Substance

Friedrich August von Hayek's Prize Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1974.

9 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

John Maynard Keynes

Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises

Milton Friedman

Murray Rothbard

Joseph A. Schumpeter

Friedrich August von Hayek

Follow

Born: May 8, 1899
Died: March 23, 1992
Occupation: Economist
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics