Even before I came to Chicago, I had gotten interested in the existence of dispersion of prices under conditions which economic theory said would yield a single price.

...it is distressing how often one can guess the answer given to an economic question merely by knowing who asks it.

I attended schools in Seattle through the University of Washington, from which I was graduated in 1931. I spent the next year at Northwestern University.

The main insight learned from interdisciplinary studies is the return to specialization

Competition is a tough weed, not a delicate flower.

There is only one social science and we are its practitioners

If you never miss a plane, you’re spending too much time at the airport.

My teaching began in 1936 at Iowa State College where T. W. Schultz was the department chairman.

I recall my mother asking in about 1946 what I was and I replied proudly that I was a professor. A decade later she repeated her question and I repeated my answer. "No promotion?" was her comment.

Theories are not rejected by cirsumstantial evidence: it takes a theory to beat a theory.

It was in the 1960s that I began the detailed study of public regulation.

Leaving behind books is even more beautiful — there are far too many children.

It’s strange how necessary it is to have problems to be able to prepare for avoiding future disasters.

When the truffles arrived the paintings leaned off the wall toward them.

Waiting insistently in front of a tightly closed door is unfair to all of the open doors! Give a chance to the open doors!

The true writer has nothing to say. What counts is the way he says it.

Like the sun, we are attracted to people who shine with warmth and brightness.

The best diet is the one that you don't know you are on.

I'm hoping my children will save me from my vanity. If it doesn't, plastic surgery is an option... It sucks to have to grow older. We all have to accept it.

You got to start by doing little things if your quest is to take over the world.

Sloth, not ill-will, makes me unjust.