Individual Quotes by Milton Friedman

To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them.

— Milton Friedman

Government is a way by which every individual believes he can live at the expense of everybody else.

— Milton Friedman

Personal freedom has grown greatly within China, and that will provoke ever more points of conflict between the individual and state.

— Milton Friedman

It all would have been much better if individuals saved for their own old age.

— Milton Friedman

The heart of the liberal philosophy is a belief in the dignity of the individual, in his freedom to make the most…

— Milton Friedman

The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market.…

— Milton Friedman

I believe the role that people like myself have played in the transformation of public opinion has been by persistently presenting a…

— Milton Friedman

If freedom led to wider inequality, I would prefer that to a world in which I got artificial equality at the expense…

— Milton Friedman

The Internet moves us closer to "perfect information" on markets. Individuals and companies alike can buy and sell across borders and jurisdictions…

— Milton Friedman

The heart of the liberal philosophy is a belief in the dignity of the individual, in his freedom to make the most…

— Milton Friedman

On aging societies, there is no reason why a country that has a lot of old people can't be prosperous if, during…

— Milton Friedman

The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country. He…

— Milton Friedman

Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should…

— Milton Friedman

"Free markets" is a very general term. There are all sorts of problems that will emerge. Free markets work best when the…

— Milton Friedman

To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. ... He…

— Milton Friedman

The important issue is not how much inequality there is but how much opportunity there is for individuals to get out of…

— Milton Friedman

Individual price and wage changes will not be prevented. In the main, price changes will simply be concealed by taking the form…

— Milton Friedman

Why have we had such a decline in moral climate? I submit to you that a major factor has been a change…

— Milton Friedman

To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is…

— Milton Friedman

I start ... from a belief in individual freedom and that derives fundamentally from a belief in the limitations of our knowledge,…

— Milton Friedman

I think that nothing is so important for freedom as recognizing in the law each individual’s natural right to property, and giving…

— Milton Friedman

Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion…

— Milton Friedman

By encouraging men to spy and report on one another, by making it in the private interest of large numbers of citizens…

— Milton Friedman

There is likely to be a lag between the need for action and government ["an individual's" or "a team's"] recognition of the…

— Milton Friedman

The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the nineteenth century in On Liberty.…

— Milton Friedman