Science

Science is competent to establish what is. It can never dictate what ought to be.

Planned Chaos, p. 30

There are no laboratory experiments in human action.

Economic Policy, p. 35

Science does not give us absolute and final certainty. It only gives us assurance within the limits of our mental abilities and the prevailing state of scientific thought. A scientific system is but one station in an endlessly progressing search for knowledge. It is necessarily affected by the insufficiency inherent in every human effort. But to acknowledge these facts does not mean that present-day economics is backward. It merely means that economics is a living thing—and to live implies both imperfection and change.

Human Action, p. 7; p. 7

What matters is not whether a doctrine is new, but whether it is sound.

Planning for Freedom, p. 53

No science can avoid abstract concepts, and he who abhors them should stay away from science and see whether and how he can go through life without them.

A Critique of Interventionism, p. 89

There are fads and fashions in the treatment of scientific problems and in the terminology of the scientific language.

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, p. 69

What life and death are eludes its grasp.

Epistemological Problems of Economics, p. 44

One has to recognize that science is not metaphysics, and certainly not mysticism; it can never bring us the illumination and the satisfaction experienced by one enraptured in ecstasy. Science is sobriety and clarity of conception, not intoxicated vision.

Epistemological Problems of Economics, p. 46

Whether we see the greatest value in wisdom or in action, in neither case may we scorn science. It alone shows us the way both to knowledge and to action. Without it our existence would be only vegetative.

Epistemological Problems of Economics, p. 46

Science is universally human, and not limited by nationality, bound to a particular time, or contingent upon any social class.

Epistemological Problems of Economics, p. 152

Science cannot go beyond its own sphere. It must limit itself to the development of our system of knowledge and with its help undertake the logical elaboration of experience.

Epistemological Problems of Economics, p. 201