“It is not necessary to prohibit or encourage oddities of conduct which are not harmful.”
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
From Who protects the consumer?, an episode of the PBS Free to Choose television series (1980, vol. 7 transcript) http://www.freetochoosemedia.org/freetochoose/detail_ftc1980_transcript.php?page=7
“It is not necessary to prohibit or encourage oddities of conduct which are not harmful.”
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Reggie Fils-Aimé (1961) American businessman
In reference to a suggestion by Microsoft's Peter Moore that one could buy a Wii and an Xbox 360 for the price of a PlayStation 3 <br class="br">On Nintendo's competitors <br class="br">Source: USA Today: Nintendo hopes Wii spells wiiner http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-08-14-nintendo-qa_x.htm
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
Gustave de Molinari (1819–1912) Belgian political economist and classical liberal theorist
Source: The Production of Security (1849), p. 22
“Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers.”
Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author
Bogeyman Economics
1980s–1990s, Compassion Versus Guilt and Other Essays (1987)
Source: Compassion Versus Guilt, and Other Essays: And Other Essays
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Source: Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), Chapter Three
Context: All the rules of control, the publication of balance sheets, the drawing up of balance sheets according ot a definite form, the public auditing of accounts, the things about which well-intentioned professors and officials - that is, those imbued with he good intention of defending and embellishing capitalism - discourse to the public, are of no avail. For private property is sacred, and no one can be prohibited from buying, selling, exchanging or mortgaging shares, etc.
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer
Source: An Economist's Protest: Columns in Political Economy (1966), p. 107
Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic
Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Jorge Majfud (1969) Uruguayan-American writer
La Jornada, México (2 May 2007) http://www.lajornadadeoriente.com.mx/2007/05/02/puebla/s1ret14.php