“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.”
Freedom
“Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”
GovernmentAll Quotes by Milton Friedman
“Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”
Government“I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.”
Finance“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.”
Government“Governments never learn. Only people learn.”
Government“Inflation is taxation without legislation.”
Finance“Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.”
Government“History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.”
Freedom“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.”
Government“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?”
Society“The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.”
Experience“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.”
Government“Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.”
Good“Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.”
Politics“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.”
Freedom“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.”
Government“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.”
Government“Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
Freedom“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”
Government“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.”
Government