However little it may often appear to be true, the social world is governed in the long run by certain moral principles on which the people at large believe. The only moral principle which has ever made the growth of an advanced civilisation possible was the principle of individual freedom, which means that the individual is guided in his decisions by rules of just conduct and not by specific commands. No principle of collective conduct which bind the individual can exist in a society of free men. What we have achieved we owe to securing to the individuals the chance of creating for themselves a protected domain (their property) within which they can use their abilities for their own purposes.
 

– Friedrich A. Hayek, Law, Legislation, and Liberty Vol. 3 [1979]