The state itself becomes more and more identified with the interests of those who run things than with the interests of the… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Inflation is probably the most important single factor in that vicious circle wherein one kind of government action makes more and more… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Once politics become a tug-of-war for shares in the income pie, decent government is impossible. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The moral consequences of totalitarian propaganda...are destructive of all morals because they undermind one of the foundations of all morals: the sense… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Everything which might cause doubt about the wisdom of the government or create discontent will be kept from the people. The basis… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
I do not think it is an exaggeration to say history is largely a history of inflation, usually inflations engineered by governments… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
In the United States, where it has become almost impossible to use "liberal" in the sense in which I have used it,… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
It is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the activities of evil men and that if only good men (like… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
I was quite depressed two weeks ago when I spent an afternoon at Brentano's Bookshop in New York and was looking at… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The mischievous idea that all public needs should be satisfied by compulsory organization and that all the means that individuals are willing… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The chief evil is unlimited government, and nobody is qualified to wield unlimited power. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialist. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The greatest danger to liberty today comes from the men who are most needed and most powerful in modern government, namely, the… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
It is also true that the less possible it becomes for a man to acquire a new fortune, the more must the… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Socialism can only be put into practice only by methods which most socialists disapprove. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
You can have economic freedom without political freedom, but you cannot have political freedom without economic freedom. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Conservatives are inclined to use the powers of government to prevent change or to limit its rate to whatever appeals to the… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
By the time any view becomes a majority view, it is no longer the best view: somebody will already have advanced beyond the point… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Freedom can be preserved only if it is treated as a supreme principle which must not be sacrificed for particular advantages. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Should our moral beliefs really prove to be dependent on factual assumptions shown to be incorrect, it would be hardly moral to defend them… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
It is true that the virtues which are less esteemed and practiced now--independence, self-reliance, and the willingness to bear risks, the readiness to back… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
Unlike the rationalism of the French Revolution, true liberalism has no quarrel with religion, and I can only deplore the militant and essentially illiberal… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage.... Unless we can make the philosophic… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The central problem of management is how spontaneous interaction of people within a firm, each possessing only bits of knowledge, can bring about the… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The discussions of every age are filled with the issues on which its leading schools of thought differ. But the general intellectual atmosphere of… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
The Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority which in economics no man ought to possess. — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
[Socialistic] economic planning, regulation, and intervention pave the way to totalitarianism by building a power structure that will inevitably be seized by the most… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image
It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends… — Friedrich August von Hayek Copy Share Image