Quotes by Milton Friedman

About Milton Friedman:

Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades. He received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.

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 individuals a sense that they own something that they’re responsible for, that they have control over, and that the...

Milton Friedman

I am a libertarian with a small 'l' and a Republican with a capital 'R'. And I am a Republican with a capital 'R' on grounds of expediency, not on principle.

Milton Friedman

Society doesn't have values. People have values.

Milton Friedman

Inflation is taxation without representation.

Milton Friedman

The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.

Milton Friedman

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

Milton Friedman

Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom i...

Milton Friedman

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.

Milton Friedman

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 sligh...

Milton Friedman

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

Milton Friedman

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

Milton Friedman

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.

Milton Friedman

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

Milton Friedman

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.

Milton Friedman

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

Milton Friedman

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

Milton Friedman

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...

Milton Friedman

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.

Milton Friedman

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.

Milton Friedman

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 sy...

Milton Friedman

Author Bio

  • NameMilton Friedman
  • DescriptionAmerican economist, statistician, and writer
  • BornJuly 31, 1912
  • DiedNovember 16, 2006
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionEconomist; Writer; Statistician
  • AwardsNobel Memorial Prize In Economic Sciences; National Medal Of Science; Presidential Medal Of Freedom; Adam Smith Award