Friedrich August von Hayek Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.”

“We must face the fact that the preservation of individual freedom is incompatible with a full satisfaction of our views of distributive justice.”

“Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom.”

“Our moral traditions developed concurrently with our reason, not as its product.”

“I have arrived at the conviction that the neglect by economists to discuss seriously what is really the crucial problem of our time is due to a certain timidity about soiling their hands by going from purely scientific questions into value questions.”

“I regard it in fact as the great advantage of the mathematical technique that it allows us to describe, by means of algebraic equations, the general character of a pattern even where we are ignorant of the numerical values which will determine its particular manifestation.”

“Intellects whose desires have outstripped their understanding.”

“If most people are not willing to see the difficulty, this is mainly because, consciously or unconsciously, they assume that it will be they who will settle these questions for the others, and because they are convinced of their own capacity to do this.”

“The mind cannot foresee its own advance.”

“This means that to entrust to science - or to deliberate control according to scientific principles - more than scientific method can achieve may have deplorable effects.”