Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own.

---

Higher taxes never reduce the deficit. Governments spend whatever they take in and then whatever they can get away with.

---

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

---

Economic freedom is an essential requisite for political freedom. By enabling people to cooperate with one another without coercion or central direction, it reduces the area over which political power is exercised.

---

You cannot be sure that you are right unless you understand the arguments against your views better than your opponents do.

---

Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.

---

The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.

---

We economists don't know much, but we do know how to create a shortage. If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can't sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you'll have a tomato shortage. It's the same with oil or gas.

---

When you start paying people to be poor, you wind up with an awful lot of poor people.

---

Society doesn't have values. People have values.

---