Milton Friedman

Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive.

The Great Depression like most other periods of severe unemployment was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.

The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.

Governments never learn. Only people learn.

A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

The power to do good is also the power to do harm.

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.

I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.

I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

And what does reward virtue? You think the communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? You think, excuse me, if you'll pardon me, American presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout?

Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

When you have a time of crisis what happens depends on what ideas are floating around and what ideas have been developed and thought through and are made effective.

The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

The Great Depression in the United States far from being a sign of the inherent instability of the private enterprise system is a testament to how much harm can be done by mistakes on the part of a few men when they wield vast power over the monetary system of the country.

Prohibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse - for both the addict and the rest of us.

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

See if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. Thats literally true.

Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.

Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.

The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.

One role of prohibition is in making the drug market more lucrative.

Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?

The Internet is the most effective instrument we have for globalization.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

The most important ways in which I think the Internet will affect the big issue is that it will make it more difficult for government to collect taxes.

A minimum-wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.

So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.

Inflation is taxation without legislation.

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.

One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship.

The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.

Well first of all, tell me, is there some society you know of that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed? What is greed?

Making prohibition work is like making water run uphill; it's against nature.

The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.

Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations.