Liberty'''.that condition of man in which coercion of some by others is reduced as much as possible in society Friedrich August von Hayek More Quotes by Friedrich August von Hayek More Quotes From 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. Friedrich August von Hayek stress evolution ideas We shall all be the gainers if we can create a world fit for small states to live in. Friedrich August von Hayek fit states world 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. Friedrich August von Hayek attitude men past 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 Friedrich August von Hayek finals study years 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 There is, in a competitive society, nobody who can exercise even a fraction of the power which a socialist planning board would possess. Friedrich August von Hayek planning boards exercise Without a theory the facts are silent. Friedrich August von Hayek silent theory facts The greatest danger to liberty today comes from the men who are most needed and most powerful in modern government, namely, the efficient expert administrators exclusively concerned with what they regard as the public good. Friedrich August von Hayek liberty powerful men The great aim of the struggle for liberty has been equality before the law. Friedrich August von Hayek liberty struggle law The progress of the natural sciences in modern times has of course so much exceeded all expectations that any suggestion that there may be some limits to it is bound to arouse suspicion. Friedrich August von Hayek progress limits expectations We know, in other words, the general conditions in which what we call, somewhat misleadingly, an equilibrium will establish itself: but we never know what the particular prices or wages are which would exist if the market were to bring about such an equilibrium. Friedrich August von Hayek equilibrium economy wages The social sciences, like much of biology but unlike most fields of the physical sciences, have to deal with structures of essential complexity, i.e. with structures whose characteristic properties can be exhibited only by models made up of relatively large numbers of variables. Friedrich August von Hayek variables essentials numbers He will therefore have to use what knowledge he can achieve, not to shape the results as the craftsman shapes his handiwork, but rather to cultivate a growth by providing the appropriate environment, in the manner in which the gardener does this for his plants. Friedrich August von Hayek growth shapes doe It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only those individuals know. Friedrich August von Hayek individual problem use We have indeed at the moment little cause for pride: as a profession we have made a mess of things. Friedrich August von Hayek causes pride littles 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. Friedrich August von Hayek psychology prejudice philosophy What a free society offers to the individual is much more than what he would be able to do if only he were free. Friedrich August von Hayek liberty society would-be Perhaps even more than elsewhere current notions of what is desirable and practicable are here still of a kind which may well produce the opposite of what they promise. Friedrich August von Hayek opposites may promise Hayek was making us think of the productive process as a process in time, inputs coming before outputs. Friedrich August von Hayek input time thinking If we were to make no better use of victory than to countenance existing trends in this direction, only too visible before 1939, we might indeed find that we have defeated National Socialism merely to create a world of many national socialisms, differing in detail, but all equally totalitarian, nationalistic, and in recurrent conflict with each other. Friedrich August von Hayek trends victory might
