Milton Friedman Quotes

196 quotes in 2733 categories

• When a private enterprise fails, it is closed down; when a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. Isn't that exactly what's been happening with drugs?
• Legalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and raise the quality of law enforcement. Can you conceive of any other measure that would…
• My major problem with the world is a problem of scarcity in the midst of plenty ... of people starving while there are unused resources…
• Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself ... Economic freedom is also…
• Economic freedom is an essential requisite for political freedom. By enabling people to cooperate with one another without coercion or central direction, it reduces the…
• Whenever we depart from voluntary cooperation and try to do good by using force, the bad moral value of force triumphs over good intentions.
• The essential notion of a capitalist society ... is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force.
• The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited, if there is…
• Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion - the technique…
• Self-interest is not myopic selfishness. It is whatever it is that interests the participants, whatever they value, whatever goals they pursue. The scientist seeking to…
• The high rate of unemployment among teenagers, and especially black teenagers, is both a scandal and a serious source of social unrest. Yet it is…
• A society based on the freedom to choose is better than a society based on the principles of socialism, communism and coercion.
• Political leaders in capitalist countries who cheer the collapse of socialism in other countries continue to favor socialist solutions in their own. They know the…
• The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-unon-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was…
• Consider Social Security. The young have always contributed to the support of the old. Earlier, the young helped their own parents out of a sense…
• If the only motive was to help people who could not afford education, advocates of government involvement would have simply proposed tuition subsidies.
• Adam Smith's key insight was that both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange can…
• When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends…
• Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay
• The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny.

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