The free market is the only mechanism that has ever been discovered for achieving participatory democracy. — Milton Friedman, Introduction to the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of The Road to Serfdom



To be controlled in our economic pursuits means to be controlled in everything — Friedrich Hayek

In war, the stronger overcomes the weaker. In business, the stronger imparts strength to the weaker. — Frederic Bastiat

The “private sector” of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and…the “public sector” is, in fact, the coercive sector. — Henry Hazlitt

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 common man is the sovereign consumer whose buying or abstention from buying ultimately determines what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. — Ludwig von Mises

The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations. — Adam Smith

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. — Richard Feynman

What is called “orthodox” economics is in most countries barred from the universities and is virtually unknown to the leading statesmen, politicians, and writers. The blame for the unsatisfactory state of economic affairs can certainly not be placed upon a science which both rulers and masses despise and ignore. — Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. — Thomas Jefferson