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The illiterate expression ‘given data’ constantly recurs in Lange. It appears to have an irresistable attraction to mathematical economists because it doubly assures them that they know what they do not know. It seems to bewitch them into making assertions about the real world for which they have no empirical justification whatever.

— Friedrich Hayek

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More quotes by Friedrich Hayek

We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage.

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (1988)

What a free society offers to the individual is much more than what he would be able to do if only he were free.

The Constitution of Liberty (1960)

The more the state "plans" the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.

The Road to Serfdom (1944)

Justice, like liberty and coercion, is a concept which, for the sake of clarity, ought to be confined to the deliberate treatment of men by other men.

The Constitution of Liberty (1960)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Friedrich Hayek (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.