Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom
Friedrich August Hayek
The choice open to us is not between a system in which everybody will get what he deserves according to some absolute and universal standard of right, and one where the individual shares are determined partly by accident or good will or chance, but b
chance choice accident system good determined individual open universal absolute
Even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality - an authoritarian determination of the status of each individual in the new hierarchical order
equality order determination individual inequality economics striving economy status result
From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time.
equality people time conflict justice achieve law inequality place fact result
There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.
equality people world difference
It is neither necessary nor desirable that national boundaries should mark sharp differences in standards of living, that membership of a national group should entitle to share in a cake altogether different from that in which members of other groups share.
equality government differences living cake share standards boundaries
Only where we ourselves are responsible for our own interests and are free to sacrifice them has our decision moral value. We are neither entitled to be unselfish at someone else's expense nor is there any merit in being unselfish if we have no choice. The members of a society who in all respects are made to do the good thing have no title to praise.
choice merit society morality sacrifice responsibility good praise decision ethics moral free responsible made interests freedom thing
Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom
freedom
We must show that liberty is not merely one particular value but that it is the source and condition of most moral values. What a free society offers to the individual is much more than what he would be able to do if only he were free. We can therefore not fully appreciate the value of freedom until we know how a society of free men as a whole differs from one in which unfreedom prevails.
liberty men society individuality morality values individual moral free source freedom
We must face the fact that the preservation of individual freedom is incompatible with a full satisfaction of our views of distributive justice
satisfaction justice individual face fact preservation freedom views
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.
belief government power society knowledge harm act fact possess
Intellects whose desires have outstripped their understanding
understanding desires
government dependence voting choose understand fact made freedom
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