Road To Serfdom Quotes

“There will always exist inequalities which will appear unjust to those who suffer from them, disappointments which will appear unmerited, and strokes of misfortune which those hit have not deserved. But when these things occur in a society which is consciously directed, the way in which people will react will be very different from what it is when they are nobody's conscious choice.”
― F.A. Hayek

“Ayn Rand described Hayek’s book as “pure poison”; Frank Chodorov “thought the program verged on intellectual cowardice”; libertarian economist Walter Block was probably not alone in thinking him only “a weak and conflicted supporter of the market”; and Hans-Hermann Hoppe referred to “Hayek’s social-democratic theory of government”.”
― Bruce Caldwell, Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950

“Those concessions might also explain why Keynes responded to the book as he did, a response that might surprise later generations. Keynes read it on the boat on the way to Bretton Woods, and on arriving in Atlantic City sent a letter saying that it was a “grand book” and that “morally and philosophically I find myself in agreement with virtually the whole of it; and not only in agreement with it, but in a deeply moved agreement” (Keynes to Hayek, June 28, 1944, quoted in Keynes 1980b, 385). Keynes went on to say that they would probably disagree on the question of where to draw the line regarding more or less intervention. Keynes thought that almost certainly more planning was necessary, which could be carried out safely if the lead- ers were “rightly orientated in their own minds and hearts to the moral is- sue” (Keynes 1980b, 387). So there were obvious differences between them. But the general sentiment expressed underlines once again the fact that in the context of their times and especially with respect to central planning and the men of science who advocated such a path for Britain, Keynes and Hayek were on the same side.”
― Bruce Caldwell, Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950

“Who imagines that there exist any common ideals of distributive justice such as will make the Norwegian fisherman consent to forgo the prospect of economic improvement in order to help his Portuguese fellow, or the Dutch worker to pay more for his bicycle to help the Coventry mechanic, or the French. peasant to pay more taxes to assist the industrialisation of Italy?”
― Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom