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

The real tragedy of minimum wage laws is that they are supported by well-meaning groups who want to reduce poverty. But the people who are hurt most by higher minimums are the most poverty stricken.

Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power.

A minimum-wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.

Society doesn’t have values. People have values.

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

You cannot be sure that you are right unless you understand the arguments against your views better than your opponents do.

I’m in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.

You know there are very few Marxists left in the world they’re all in American universities.

Every person shall be free to do good at his own expense.

With respect to teachers’ salaries …. Poor teachers are grossly overpaid and good teachers grossly underpaid. Salary schedules tend to be uniform and determined far more by seniority.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change.

If you pay people not to work and tax them when they do, don’t be surprised if you get unemployment.

The word ‘free’ is used three times in the Declaration of Independence and once in the First Amendment to the Constitution, along with ‘freedom.’ The word ‘fair’ is not used in either of our founding documents.

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

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

I learned some invaluable lessons in Nashville that apply to both farming and show business: Do not corner something you know is meaner than you; keep skunks of all kinds at a distance; if you forgive your enemies, it messes up their heads.

You are the only boss you have. And I want you to be the most demanding boss that you can be. If you really want to make a success of this business, then you must put yourself on a schedule.

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.

The seeds you plant in the hearts and minds of others will be what you receive in return – 100-fold. Only sow that which you wish to receive in return. Sow good, receive good! Plant seeds daily in your Mary Kay business and your Mary Kay business will return to you.

I have always been focused on my job. No profession allows you the luxury of being half-focused. If you’re not into it, you’re not there. And the film industry is all the more harsh in these cases, perhaps because it’s a business of the limelight.

The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed, you must have a larger ambition.

We are coming to see that there should be no stifling of labor by capital, or of capital by labor; and also that there should be no stifling of labor by labor, or of capital by capital.