Friedrich Hayek Quotes

The Tea Party folks may be sincere, loyal citizens, but their notions about how the economy works are exactly that: mere notions. Their core notion is that government needs to do nothing more than get out of the way of business in order for the economy to boom and bloom.

I do believe in the free market.

Just as the left has to be more willing to question 'Government knows best,' the right has to rethink its laissez-faire attitude toward government.

However firmly thou holdest to thy opinions, if truth appears on the opposite side, throw down thy arms at once.

We must stand firm against the Left's nationalisation obsession.

I'm a classic English liberal. A classical liberal, which is different to the modern interpretation of liberal in America.

A real gold standard is thoroughly consistent with [classical] liberal principles and I, for one, am entirely in favor of measures promoting its development.

Don't liberal Democrats ever learn economic principles, or does their class warfare trump all else?

Neoliberal ideology is enormously powerful.

The principle of laissez-faire may be safely trusted to in some things but in many more it is wholly inapplicable; and to appeal to it on all occasions savors more of the policy of a parrot than of a statesman or a philosopher.

The broad liberal objective is a balanced and flexible "mixed economy," thus seeking to occupy that middle ground between capitalism and socialism whose viability has so long been denied by both capitalists and socialists.

I'm not an expert in it, but it seems to me that you have to let the market forces go their course.

I change my opinions often, but not my way of thinking.

Deregulation is a transfer of power from the trodden to the treading. It is unsurprising that all conservative parties claim to hate big government.

No precautions, and no precautionary principle, can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee. We need a stance of problem-fixing, not just problem-avoidance.

Anarchism has a broad back, like paper it endures anything.

Laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of socialism.

Be flexible, but stick to your principles.

Gentlemen, the time is coming when there will be two great classes, Socialists, and Anarchists. The Anarchists want the government to be nothing, and the Socialists want the government to be everything. There can be no greater contrast. Well, the time will come when there will be only these two great parties, the Anarchists representing the laissez faire doctrine and the Socialists representing the extreme view on the other side, and when that time comes I am an Anarchist.

It is not the policy of the government in America to give aid to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without help or impediment, which is generally the best policy.

I react pragmatically. Where the market works, I'm for that. Where the government is necessary, I'm for that. I'm deeply suspicious of somebody who says, 'I'm in favor of privatization,' or, 'I'm deeply in favor of public ownership.' I'm in favor of whatever works in the particular case.

A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.

There are things about classic liberalism that obviously I'm drawn to and I bet all of you are as well. Those are things like liberty, freedom, the Bill of Rights. But the reason that I reject the label is that I grew up cutting my teeth against the liberals.

A first principle not formally recognized by scientific methodologists: when you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.

I do not share the general view that market forces are the basis of personal liberty.