Friedrich Hayek Quotes

Any organized social group is always a stratified social body. There has not been and does not exist any permanent social group which is "flat" and in which all members are equal.

The prime culprit in causing contemporary social inequality seems to be merit.

However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.

It has often been said, that there is but one rank of men in America… we have no artificial distinctions of men into noblemen and commoners among us, but it ought to be remarked, that superior degrees of industry and capacity, and above all, commerce, have introduced inequality of property among us, and these have introduced natural distinctions of rank in Pennsylvania, as certain and general as the artificial distinctions of men in Europe. This will ever be the case while commerce exists in this country.

An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

Is the great working class oppressed? Yes, undoubtedly it is. God has intended the great to be great and the little to be little.

I am no leveller; I look upon an artificial equality as equally pernicious with a factitious aristocracy; both depressing the energies and checking the enterprise of a nation.

Social mobility is much less today in America than it historically has been, and it is almost as low as England, the lowest of the industrial countries of Europe.

In a superior civilization, as, for example, that of the Indo-Aryans, the being who is without a characteristic form or caste... would emerge as a pariah. In this respect America is a society of pariahs. There is a role for pariahs. It is to be subjected to beings whose form and internal laws are precisely defined. Instead the modern pariahs seek to become dominant themselves and to exercise their dominion over all the world.

The higher classes constitute the mind of the single large whole of humanity; the lower classes constitute its limbs;

The gap between aspiration and reality could hardly be wider. Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country. Study after study has exposed the myth that America is a land of opportunity. This is especially tragic: While Americans may differ on the desirability of equality of outcomes, there is near-universal consensus that inequality of opportunity is indefensible.

That certain groups do much better in America than others—as measured by income, occupational status, test scores and so on – is difficult to talk about.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

I reject absolutely the idea that people should know their place, and know their class.

They cannot divide us by saying that you're middle class or you're lower class.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

If education does not create a need for the best in life, then we are stuck in an undemocratic, rigid caste society.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

The problem is that the U.K. in essence is a feudal society. It's everyone in their place.

I don't believe in social equality, and they know it.

I don't like a class system. I don't like the idea of being in a different class than other people.

Our democracy may have an aristocracy of talent, as Jefferson said – which is fine – but we don’t want everyone else to be left out. Something like that seems to be happening, though.

In this country there is no rank but rank mutton.

If you try and level society, then nobody will do anything.

The middle class is always a firm champion of equality when it concerns a class above it; but it is its inveterate foe when it concerns elevating a class below it.