Friedrich August von Hayek
12 quotes
Biography
"I do not think it is an exaggeration to say history is largely a history of inflation, usually inflations engineered by governments for the gain of governments."
"To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm."
"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."
"To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm."
"It seems to me that socialists today can preserve their position in academic economics merely by the pretense that the differences are entirely moral questions about which science cannot decide."
"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."
"To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm."
"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."
"The credit which the apparent conformity with recognized scientific standards can gain for seemingly simple but false theories may, as the present instance shows, have grave consequences."
"We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish."
"The mind cannot foresee its own advance."
"'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded."