Freedom

The distinction between an economic sphere of human life and activity and a noneconomic sphere is the worst of their fallacies. If an omnipotent authority has the power to assign to every individual the tasks he has to perform, nothing that can be called freedom and autonomy is left to him. He has only the choice between strict obedience and death by starvation.

Theory and History, pp. 376–77

Freedom must be granted to all, even to base people, lest the few who can use it for the benefit of mankind be hindered.

The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, p. 108

As soon as the economic freedom which the market economy grants to its members is removed, all political liberties and bills of rights become humbug.

Human Action, p. 284; p. 287

Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop.

Human Action, p. 319; p. 322

The idea that political freedom can be preserved in the absence of economic freedom, and vice versa, is an illusion. Political freedom is the corollary of economic freedom.

Planning for Freedom, p. 38

The characteristic feature of a free society is that it can function in spite of the fact that its members disagree in many judgments of value.

Theory and History, p. 61

Freedom in society means that a man depends as much upon other people as other people depend on him.

Economic Policy, p. 19

Freedom really means the freedom to make mistakes.

Economic Policy, p. 22

Many of our contemporaries are firmly convinced that what is needed to render all human affairs perfectly satisfactory is brutal suppression of all “bad” people, i.e., of those with whom they disagree. They dream of a perfect system of government that—as they think—would have already long since been realized if these “bad” men, guided by stupidity and selfishness, had not hindered its establishment.

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, p. 95

This, then, is freedom in the external life of man—that he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows. Such freedom is no natural right. It did not exist under primitive conditions. It arose in the process of social development and its final completion is the work of mature Capitalism.

Socialism, p. 171

When men have gained freedom in purely economic relationships they begin to desire it elsewhere.

Socialism, p. 171

The only true national autonomy is the freedom of the individual against the state and society.

Nation, State, and Economy, p. 96

As soon as we surrender the principle that the state should not interfere in any questions touching on the individual’s mode of life, we end by regulating and restricting the latter down to the smallest detail.

Liberalism, p. 54

The meaning of economic freedom is this: that the individual is in a position to choose the way in which he wants to integrate himself into the totality of society.

Economic Policy, p. 17

Liberty and freedom are the conditions of man within a contractual society.

Human Action, p. 282

Freedom, as people enjoyed it in the democratic countries of Western civilization in the years of the old liberalism’s triumph, was not a product of constitutions, bills of rights, laws, and statutes. Those documents aimed only at safeguarding liberty and freedom, firmly established by the operation of the market economy, against encroachments on the part of office holders. No government and no civil law can guarantee and bring about freedom otherwise than by supporting and defending the fundamental institutions of the market economy. . . . Where there is no market economy, the best-intentioned provisions of constitutions and laws remain a dead letter.

Human Action, p. 283; p. 285

The freedom of man under capitalism is an effect of competition.

Human Action, p. 283; p. 285