The simplest scheme of evolution is one that depends on two processes; a generator and a test. The task of the generator is to produce variety, new forms that have not existed previously, whereas the task of the test is to cull out the newly generated forms so that only those that are well fitted to the environment will survive.

Because he treats the world as rather empty and ignores the interrelatedness of all things (so stupefying to thought and action), administrative man can make decisions with relatively simple rules of thumb that do not make impossible demands upon his capacity for thought.

Human beings know a lot of things, some of which are true, and apply them. When we like the results, we call it wisdom.

Forget about Nobel prizes; they aren't really very important.

A complex decision is like a great river, drawing from its many tributaries the innumerable premises of which it is constituted.

Enlightenments, like accidents, happen only to prepared minds.

No one has characterized market mechanisms better than Friedrich von Hayek