Sources and method

This archive exists to answer one question well: what did Milton Friedman actually say about something? Its only asset is that you can trust the answer, so the rules below are mechanical and the site is built to fail rather than publish an uncited quote.

Verbatim or nothing

Every passage is reproduced exactly as it appears in its source. Nothing is paraphrased, smoothed, modernized, or completed. An ellipsis marks omitted words and square brackets mark an inserted word needed for grammar. If the exact wording cannot be established, the passage does not go in.

A citation on every passage

No quote is published without a work, a year, and a source type, and a page, chapter, or timestamp whenever the source provides one. This is enforced by the build, not by good intentions.

Verification status is public

Each passage says which of two things is true, right on the page:

• Checked against the source. The wording was compared with the work itself or an authoritative reproduction of it. Currently 225 of 329.
• Not yet checked. The wording comes from a secondary compilation and has not yet been compared with the work. Currently 104 of 329.

An unchecked passage is a research lead shown honestly, not a claim. Nothing is promoted to checked because it is famous or because several quote sites agree.

Copyright

Friedman's books, columns, and broadcasts are in copyright. This archive carries short excerpts with attribution for commentary and research, and links out to the rights holder's own copy. It does not reproduce a full chapter, column, essay, or transcript, and it does not host his audio or video. Where you can watch or hear him, the link goes to whoever holds the rights.

The ask feature does not speak for him

Asking a question retrieves and ranks passages he actually said. No language model writes prose here, nothing is composed in his voice, and when the archive holds nothing on point it says so rather than filling the gap. He died on November 16, 2006, and has no view on anything after that date.

Corrections

If a quote here is wrong, misattributed, or stripped of context that changes its meaning,report it. Corrections are applied, not debated.

Independence

This archive is not affiliated with the Friedman family, the Hoover Institution, or the Free To Choose Network. Where their material is cited, it is cited and linked, never copied.