Friedrich Hayek Quotes

To say that corrupt means corrupt the ends is to believe in the immaculate conception of ends and principles.

Unbounded morality ultimately becomes counterproductive even in terms of the same moral principles being sought. The law of diminishing returns applies to morality.

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.

One cannot prescribe to anyone whether he should follow an ethic of absolute ends or an ethic of responsibility.

There are times when the end justifies the means. But when you build an argument based on a whole series of such times, you may find that you've constructed an entire philosophy of evil." --Luke Skywalker

The principle that the end justifies the means is and remains the only rule of political ethics; anything else is just a vague chatter and melts away between one’s fingers.

There is no moral absolute, and this leads us to situational ethics, which unfortunately is being taught in public schools all over America. This means that right and wrong is dependent upon the circumstances.

I think in general the ends do not justify the means.

Life's not black-and-white. Sometimes the ends justifies the means.

They tend to be pretty abstract ones then, like doing what will have the best consequences; obviously you wouldn't specify what consequences are best, they may be different in some circumstances, so at a lower, more specific level, you may well get differences.

I had taken a course in Ethics. I read a thick textbook, heard the class discussions and came out of it saying I hadn't learned a thing I didn't know before about morals and what is right or wrong in human conduct.

I'm a Utilitarian, so I don't see the rule against lying as absolute; it's always subject to some overriding utility which may prevent its exercise.

Relativity must replace absolutism in the realm of morals as well as in the spheres of physics and biology.

Each man must grant himself … the morality that suits him.

The problem with absolutist beliefs that they can get you into traps in which the ends justify the means.

Moral liberty is the power of following, in all circumstances, our sense of right and wrong, or of acting in conformity to our reflecting and moral principles, without being controlled by any contrary principles.

It is possible that the distinction between moral relativism and moral absolutism has sometimes been blurred because an excessively consistent practice of either leads to the same practical result — ruthlessness in political life.

The ideologue says “whatever is right works.” The pragmatist says “whatever works is right.”

We ought to see clearly that the end does justify the means

One clings to principles for only as long as they are not put to the test. When that happens one throws them away as the peasant does his slippers.

This demand follows from an insight that I was the first to articulate: that there are no moral facts.

Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.

Freedom that ignores the transcendent difference between good and evil ends in the denial of freedom itself.

In the anarchist milieu, communism, individualism, collectivism, mutualism and all the intermediate and eclectic programmes are simply the ways considered best for achieving freedom and solidarity in economic life; the ways believed to correspond more closely with justice and freedom for the distribution of the means of production and the products of labour among men. Bakunin was an anarchist, and he was a collectivist, an outspoken enemy of communism because he saw in it the negation of freedom and, therefore, of human dignity.