It is my guiding confession that I believe the greatest error in economics is in seeing the economy as a stable, immutable structure.

The fully planned economy, so far from being unpopular, is warmly regarded by those who know it best.

The years of the Great Depression were a superb time for economists because people not knowing what could be done or what should be done would always assume that maybe an economist had the answer. If you were just a lawyer in Washington, you were nobody. But if you were an economist, you might have the answer.

Economics is a subject profoundly conducive to cliche, resonant with boredom. On few topics is an American audience so practiced in turning off its ears and minds. And none can say that the response is ill advised.

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

Unemployment is rarely considered desirable except by those who have not experienced it.

Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are rarely missed.