Quotes by Milton Friedman

Inflation is one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

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

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.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

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

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

Inflation is taxation without legislation.

I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever its possible.

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 didnt construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didnt revolutionize the automobile industry that way.

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

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

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

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

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

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