Talk:Friedrich Hayek

Unfinished quote

Why isn't one of his quotes finished it should be Nobody with open eyes can any longer doubt that the danger to personal freedom comes chiefly from the left. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.59.209.33 (talk • contribs) 01:17, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Page numbers and sources

For some reason, editors of this page are adding page numbers to the source lines, but putting them in HTML comments. The goal of sourcing is to make it reasonably possible for readers to verify quotes. This means that such information should be explicit in the source lines. Furthermore, as different editions and works have different page numbers for any particular quote, it is necessary to cite the specific edition of the work along with the page number. The easiest way to do this is to include the ISBN, if available, which uniquely identifies the edition. (If it predates ISBN or is unavailable, please include any specific publication data available, like edition number, reprinting number, month/year, publisher, etc.) The total page count should also be given, so that readers can interpolate for their own editions. An example using the {{cite book}} template:

* {{cite book
  | last = Hamilton
  | first = Laurell K.
  | title = Danse Macabre
  | edition = 1st ed.
  | year = 2006
  | month = July
  | publisher = Berkley
  | location = New York
  | id = ISBN 0-425-20797-8
  | pages = 483 pages
}}

yields the following line that may be placed in a "References" section:

• Hamilton, Laurell K. (July 2006). Danse Macabre (1st ed. ed.). New York: Berkley. pp. 483 pages. ISBN 0-425-20797-8. 

(It is not necessary to use the template, but it has its benefits, including a standardized format that, if changed, is reflected immediately in all articles.) I ask that all editors who have copies of the cited works make an effort to add this information. Thank you for your help. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 03:39, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

The curious task

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

This is one of Hayek's most well known quotes, taken from his 1988 book "The Fatal Conceit," at least the most well known from that book.

Someone please add it. PokeHomsar 07:38, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

This has now been added in the form:

• The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. To the naive mind that can conceive of order only as the product of deliberate arrangement, it may seem absurd that in complex conditions order, and adaptation to the unknown, can be achieved more effectively by decentralizing decisions and that a division of authority will actually extend the possibility of overall order. Yet that decentralization actually leads to more information being taken into account.
  • The Fatal Conceit : The Errors of Socialism (1988), p. 76

Though certain editors do tend to intimidate others — at times even going so far as to block people for daring to enter into edit disputes with them, going on rampages of defacement, denigration, derision and slanders, and pretty much freezing work on an article precisely to their casually thought out preferences, such behavior is not the accepted norm on this or any other Wikimedia wiki, and anyone is normally welcome to add material to the articles here. ~ Kalki (talk · contributions) 13:00, 3 March 2011 (UTC)