The quotations of

Milton Friedman

American economist and statistician

1912–2006

14 quotes, most often on Government, Economics and Freedom.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, 2002 edition, page 15
The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.
From Created Equal, an episode of the PBS Free to Choose television series (1980, vol. 5 transcript).
- Freedom
The basic problem of social organization is how to co-ordinate the economic activities of large numbers of people.
Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12
- Economics
If you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That’s literally true.
America’s Drug Forum interview (1991)
- Economics
- Government
In this day and age, we need to revise the old saying to read, “Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.”
“Bureaucracy Scorned” in Newsweek (29 December 1975), later published in Bright Promises, Dismal Performance: An Economist’s Protest (1983)
- Comedy
- Government
The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.
“Interview with Milton Friedman”, Playboy magazine (Feb. 1973)
- Government
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.
The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory (1970)
- Economics
- Money
The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in On Liberty. The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual.
America’s Drug Forum interview (1991)
- Government
Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.
Free to Choose (1980), Ch. 1 “The Power of the Market”, p. 13
- Economics
It’s a moral problem that the government is making into criminals people, who may be doing something you and I don’t approve of, but who are doing something that hurts nobody else.
America’s Drug Forum interview (1991)
- Government
- Morality
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
Interview with Richard Heffner on The Open Mind (7 December 1975)
- Government
- Politics
With some notable exceptions, businessmen favor free enterprise in general but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves.
Lecture “The Suicidal Impulse of the Business Community” (1983); cited in Filters Against Folly (1985) by Garrett Hardin
- Business
Only a crisis⁠—actual or perceived⁠—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.
Capitalism and Freedom (1962), preface to the 1982 edition, p. ix
- Change
- Ideas
In a free society, it is hard for “good” people to do “good,” but that is a small price to pay for making it hard for “evil” people to do “evil,” especially since one man’s good is another’s evil.
“The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits”, The New York Times Magazine (13 September 1970)
- Freedom
- Good & Evil

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