Skip to content

The liberal conceives of men as imperfect beings. He regards the problem of social organization to be as much a negative problem of preventing 'bad' people from doing harm as of enabling 'good' people to do good; and, of course, 'bad' and 'good' people may be the same people, depending on who is judging them.

— Milton Friedman Capitalism and Freedom (1962)

Another quote →

More quotes by Milton Friedman

With some notable exceptions, businessmen favor free enterprise in general but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves.

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.

One reason why money is a mystery to so many is the role of myth or fiction or convention.

Money Mischief (1992)

The basic problem of social organization is how to co-ordinate the economic activities of large numbers of people.

Capitalism and Freedom (1962)

To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them.

Capitalism and Freedom (1962)

All Milton Friedman quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Milton Friedman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.