Get the process of negotiation away from the small specialized group that some people have called the "nuclear theologians" ... Only a few people can understand the nature of these weapons ... This kept the whole discussion to a very limited group of people who, in a way, had assumed responsibility for saying whether we should live or die.

Complexity and obscurity have professional value - they are the academic equivalents of apprenticeship rules in the building trades. They exclude the outsiders, keep down the competition, preserve the image of a privileged or priestly class. The man who makes things clear is a scab. He is criticized less for his clarity than for his treachery.

Originality is something that is easily exaggerated, especially by authors contemplating their own work.

It is a commonplace of modern technology that problems have solutions before there is knowledge of how they are to be solved.

In economics it is a far, far wiser thing to be right than to be consistent

I think the role of the Federal Reserve is enormously exaggerated.

Milton Friedman’s misfortune is that his economic policies have been tried.