Quotes by Milton Friedman

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.

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