Quote — F.A. Hayek


“Some security is essential if freedom is to be preserved, because most men are willing to bear the risk which freedom inevitably involves only so long as that risk is not too great.  But while this is a truth of which we must never lose sight, nothing is more fatal than the present fashion among intellectual leaders of extolling security at the expense of freedom.  It is essential that we should re-learn frankly to face the fact that freedom can be had only at a price and that as individuals we must be prepared to make severe material sacrifices to preserve our liberty.  If we want to retain this, we must regain the conviction on which the rule of liberty in the Anglo-Saxon countries has been based and which Benjamin Franklin expressed in a phrase applicable to us in our lives as individuals no less than as nations: ‘Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.’” – F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

About these ads
This entry was posted in History, Politics, Quotes and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Quote — F.A. Hayek

  1. You are on a Hayek ROLL, DD!
    But if you have ta stick with one guy, it’s hard to go wrong with him.

    Have you ever plowed your way through ‘The Road To Serfdom’, cover to cover? At over 300 pages (at least in my old paperback it is), it is not the easiest of reads.
    I’m forever grateful that I had a South Korean professor back in school who was a big Hayek fan.
    He had a copy of ‘Serfdom’ on his desk, ….and “suggested” that we read it.

    All the other econ profs were Keynesians (surprise, surprise).

    • Dapper Dan says:

      I just finished reading Road To Serfdom last week. That’s why all the quotes. :D Really really good book. Written in 1944 it’s like I was reading a prophecy being fulfilled today. He totally nailed a lot of things.

      • Well certainly does explain the sudden influx of Hayek! ;)
        Hey, I found another article that you may enjoy, especially since you just finished Serfdom:
        http://mises.org/daily/4095

        It’s from the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and they discuss Keynes, Hayek, and those videos that I like so much. Gives quite a bit of insight and background. Obviously, you know where they are coming from, knowing Mises.

      • Dapper Dan says:

        That was really cool. Thanks!

        I’ve never read any Mises but I like what I’ve heard. He might be the next guy I look into someday. Having only recently discovered Hayek I’ll probably read more from and about him.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s