I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The great virtue of a free market is that it enables people who hate each other, or who are from vastly different… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work.… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
People who intend only to seek their own benefit are “led by an invisible hand to serve a public interest which was… — 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
It's a moral problem that the government is making into criminals people, who may be doing something you and I don't approve… — 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
But on the other hand, if you come under circumstances where each person is entitled to a pro-rata share of the pot,… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintainence of a free society is a very… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
And what does reward virtue? You think the communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? You think, excuse me,… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The important issue is not how much inequality there is but how much opportunity there is for individuals to get out of… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
What does it mean to say that government might have a responsibility? Government can't have a responsibility any more than the business… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Rich people are the experimental ground for every new development. The nature of progress is that what begins as a luxury for… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
How can thinking people believe that a government that cannot deliver the mail can deliver gas better than Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Gulf,… — 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
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
A free society releases the energies and abilities of people to pursue their own objectives. It prevents some people from arbitrarily suppressing… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
In a free society, it is hard for 'good' people to do 'good', but that is a small price to pay for… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
Why is it that private insurance companies are not in trouble because people are getting older? Aren't they subject to the same… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The benefits of a tariff are visible. Union workers can see they are "protected". The harm which a tariff does is invisible.… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintenance of a free society is a very… — Milton Friedman Copy Share Image
The real tragedy of minimum wage laws is that they are supported by well-meaning groups who want to reduce poverty. But the… — 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
