The key insight of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

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

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One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

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The essential notion of a capitalist society ... is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force.

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Since the 1930s the technique of buying votes with the voters' own money has been expanded to an extent undreamed of by earlier politicians.

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We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

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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.

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The government doesn't have any money. The only power it has is to take from some and give to others.

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If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

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Inflation is taxation without legislation.

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