A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.

Even the most ardent environmentalist doesn’t really want to stop pollution. If he thinks about it, and doesn’t just talk about it, he wants to have the right amount of pollution. We can’t really afford to eliminate it—not without abandoning all the benefits of technology that we not only enjoy but on which we depend.

A minimum-wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.

Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself. . . . Economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom.

Thank heavens we do not get all of the government that we are made to pay for.

There is one and only one social responsibility of business-to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

A society that puts equality... ahead of freedom will end up with neither.

There is no free lunch.

When everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition. That is why buildings in the Soviet Union—like public housing in the United States—look decrepit within a year or two of their construction.

Inflation is taxation without legislation.