Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in our sense of the word All economic change, therefore, would involve operations the value of which could neither be predicted beforehand nor ascertained after they had taken place. Everything would be a leap in the dark. Socialism is the renunciation of rational economy.

We must fight all that we dislike in public life. We must substitute better ideas for wrong ideas.

Socialist society is a society of officials.

Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will.

The [liberals] consider profits as objectionable. The very existence of profits is in their eyes a proof that wage rates could be raised without harm to anybody. They speak of profit without dealing with loss. Profit and loss are the instruments by means of which the consumers keep a tight rein on all business activities. A profitable enterprise tends to expand; an unprofitable one tends to shrink. The elimination of profit renders production rigid and abolishes the consumer's control.

It is the rule of law alone which hinders the rulers from turning themselves into the worst gangsters.

Human civilization is not something achieved against nature; it is rather the outcome of the working of the innate qualities of man.