Happiness

Men cannot be made happy against their will.

Liberalism, p. 46

Nobody is in a position to decree what should make a fellow man happier.

Human Action, p. 14; p. 14

Each individual is the only and final arbiter in matters concerning his own satisfaction and happiness.

Theory and History, p. 13

Nobody is called upon to determine what could make another man happier or less unhappy.

Planning for Freedom, p. 118

You do not increase the happiness of a man eager to attend a performance of Abie’s Irish Rose by forcing him to attend a perfect performance of Hamlet instead. You may deride his poor taste. But he alone is supreme in matters of his own satisfaction.

Bureaucracy, pp. 90–91

There is no means of comparing and measuring the happiness of different people and of the same people at different times.

Human Action, p. 617; p. 621

If a man drinks wine and not water I cannot say he is acting irrationally. At most I can say that in his place I would not do so. But his pursuit of happiness is his own business, not mine.

Socialism, p. 405

Man is not evil merely because he wants to enjoy pleasure and avoid pain—in other words, to live. Renunciation, abnegation, and self-sacrifice are not good in themselves.

Socialism, p. 409