The Essential Hayek Quotes

“As Hayek himself understood, however, the case for freedom and free markets must continually be rejuvenated and made again and again and again. The project is never completed, as more recent political developments in Britain and the United States attest. Opposing ideas—those of collectivism of one form or another—are always being generated, refined, and spread. Failure by classical liberals and other defenders of a society based on free markets and strictly limited government to counter these collectivist ideas will guarantee the victory of collectivism.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“market economy permits self-interested people to prosper economically only by serving the interests of others. The greediest businessman can profit only by offering consumers deals that consumers value.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“And I am thankful especially to my early mentor, Bill Field, who introduced me to Hayek’s work. I still recall the day, nearly 40 years ago, that Bill handed me his copy of Hayek’s Individualism and Economic Order and suggested that I read “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” “You won’t understand it all,” he warned. “But read it anyway. You’ll get enough of it to understand that you should re-read it in the future. It’s jam-packed with layers of insights.” Bill was right.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“In this short book I aim to convey as clearly as possible the gist of ten of Hayek’s most important economic and political ideas. While I share Hayek’s viewpoint on most such matters, I’ve done my best in the pages that follow to convey Hayek’s ideas and perspectives rather than my own.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“As valuable and agreeable as these small-group sentiments and emotions are, however, they are poorly suited to guide us in our connections with the larger society.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“Karl Marx insisted that the ideas that you, I, and other people hold are shaped and powered by our station and function in the economy. Ideas themselves play no independent role in shaping the contours or in governing the destiny of an economy and society.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“That the Great Society gives to each individual maximum possible scope to live as he or she sees fit is, perhaps ironically, one reason that many people dislike it.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“The system that best ensures that resources are used as efficiently as possible is free-market capitalism—an economic system based on transferrable private property rights, freedom of contract, the rule of law, and consumer sovereignty.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“These goods exist not because some great and ingenious human plan called them into being. Instead, they exist because of a social institution that encourages people to specialize in learning different skills, as well as to learn different slices of knowledge and gather different bits of information about the real world.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“So achieving complete protection of all citizens at all times from the risk of falling incomes means not only being ruled by an immensely powerful government with virtually no checks on its discretion, but also the eradication of all prospects of economic growth. Inevitably, at the end of this road paved with the good intention of protecting all producers from loss lies not only serfdom but also widespread poverty.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”
― Donald J. Boudreaux, The Essential Hayek