F.a. Hayek

However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is read more

However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as "the most anti-social and evil of all passions.

Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and read more

Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and the only equality which we can secure without destroying liberty. Not only has liberty nothing to do with any other sort of equality, but it is even bound to produce inequality in many respects. This is the necessary result and part of the justification of individual liberty: if the result of individual liberty did not demonstrate that some manners of living are more successful than others, much of the case for it would vanish.

Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has read more

Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has been wrong.

Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow read more

Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow with the advance of science." Unfortunately, the popular effect of this scientific advance has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range of our ignorance is steadily diminishing and that we can therefore aim at more comprehensive and deliberate control of all human activities. It is for this reason that those intoxicated by the advance of knowledge so often become the enemies of freedom.

A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow read more

A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom.