The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited, if there is any feasible alternative. There is no need for such arbitrary power... Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, [so] that mistakes - excusable or not - can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic - this is the key political argument against an independent central bank.

There is likely to be a lag between the need for action and government ["an individual's" or "a team's"] recognition of the need; a further lag between recognition of the need for action and the taking of action; and a still further lag between the action and its effects

The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny.

Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive.

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

Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow men.

The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.