552 Quotes by Milton Friedman

...theories should be judged by their ability to predict events rather than by the realism of their assumptions.

The preservation of liberty, not the promotion of efficiency, is the primary justification for private property. Efficiency is a happy, though not accidental, by-product - and a most important by-product because liberty could not have survived if it had not also produced affluence.

The Internet is the most effective instrument we have for globalization.

There’s a smokestack on the back of every government program.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

What does it mean to say that government might have a responsibility? Government can’t have a responsibility any more than the business can. The only entities which can have responsibilities are people.

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

If China don’t free up the political side, its economic growth will come to an end – while it is still at a very low level.

What kind of society isn’t structured on greed?