Milton Friedman Quotes

The spectacle which confronts all Europe today is a great conflict between democracy and dictatorship.

I am the government.

The greatest power is not money power, but political power.

He who is the most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power is as eager after for the prerogatives of government.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

Governments pale in the face of truth. It’s the one thing they fear most.

Politics determine who has the power, not who has the truth.

… every new form of government, fascist, communist or our own democracy had originally for its purpose the making of a world in which people could be happy and content.

Politics without responsibility IS fascism.

The good government of one man is the bad government of another

Yahya Khan wasn't interested in the government of the country, he was interested in power for its own sake and nothing else.

The Soviet system is how everything here works. It's very difficult to break the system. The system is big and inflexible, uneffective, and also corrupt. And that is our main goal: to change the system, to break the system, to make it modern.

Time will change who is in power.

Mobutu does not think he is God.

The director can be a dictator, but it's not wise to be. You have to choose the days to be a dictator and the days to deal with diplomacy and democracy. Every great leader should know that, even a dictator. Tyrants get overthrown.

Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.

Democracy is an interesting, even laudable, notion and there is no question but that when compared to Communism, which is too dull, or Fascism, which is too exciting, it emerges as the most palatable form of government.

The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny.

I am thankful that the church exists, thankful that it has done such great things, giving us laws, for instance - 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not', and established Goodness and Evil. That's what all religions do, and as soon as we try to replace them, worldly religions like fascism and communism take over.

Where princes are concerned, a man who is able to do good is as dangerous and almost as criminal as a man who intends to do evil.

Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.

In the 19th century it was basically nationality and people trying to define their nationalism and create states which would reflect their nationalism. In the 20th century, ideology came to the fore, largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the Russian Revolution and we have fascism, communism and liberal democracy competing with each other. Well that's pretty much over.

There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.

In Democracy, man exploits man; in Communism, it's the other way round.

There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few.