Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest? — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Whenever we depart from voluntary cooperation and try to do good by using force, the bad moral value of force triumphs over… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
If you do not force political freedom, economic freedom will be stymied sooner or later. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
You know there are very few Marxists left in the world... they're all in American universities. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
If China don't free up the political side, its economic growth will come to an end - while it is still at… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Everywhere, and at all times, economic progress has meant far more to the poor than to the rich. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself ... Economic… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The free market is not only a more efficient decision maker than even the wisest central planning body, but even more important,… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The countries that have risen and separated out as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union are, on the whole,… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The essential notion of a capitalist society ... is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The future of private enterprise capitalism is also the future of a free society. There is no possibility of having a politically… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Economic freedom is an essential requisite for political freedom. By enabling people to cooperate with one another without coercion or central direction,… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
I know of no example in time or place of a society that has been marked by a large measure of political… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Now here's somebody who wants to smoke a marijuana cigarette. If he's caught, he goes to jail. Now is that moral? Is… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Self-interest is not myopic selfishness. It is whatever it is that interests the participants, whatever they value, whatever goals they pursue. The… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
If capitalism worked as the socialists think an economic system ought to work, and provided a constant equality of living conditions for… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The key insight of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
For example, the supporters of tariffs treat it as self-evident that the creation of jobs is a desirable end, in and of… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Viewed as a means to the end of political freedom, economic arrangements are important because of their effect on the concentration or… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited,… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Economics has become increasingly an arcane branch of mathematics rather than dealing with real economic problems. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Economic freedom is ... an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-unon-industry cartels or by centralized economic… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
China has seen a great deal of economic progress. It's certainly rather of a miracle. The growing role of the market in… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
I believe the role that people like myself have played in the transformation of public opinion has been by persistently presenting a different point… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
To really understand something you've got to reduce it to its principles. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
It is a mark of how far we have gone on the road to serfdom that government allocation and rationing of oil is the… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Economic freedom is an essential requisite for political freedom. By enabling people to cooperate with one another without coercion or central direction, it reduces… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
“The people in one district can choose not to reelect their member of Congress, but that will not change the composition of the government… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
When you have a time of crisis what happens depends on what ideas are floating around, and what ideas have been developed, and thought… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The government doesn't have any money. The only power it has is to take from some and give to others. — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
What would the people who sold us goods do with the money? They'd get dollars. What would they do with the dollars? Eat them?! — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
World trade depends on differences among countries, not similarities. Different countries are in different stages of development. It is appropriate for them to have… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
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… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
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… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
