The part of our social order which can or ought to be made a conscious product of human reason is only a small part of all the forces of society.

Liberty is an opportunity for doing good, but this is only so when it is also an opportunity for doing wrong.

All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wisest.

...the case for individual freedom rests largely on the recognition of the inevitable and universal ignorance of all of us concerning a great many of the factors on which the achievements of our ends and welfare depend.

A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom.

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