Monopoly Quotes

• Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Rights, Use

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.94, Penguin

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• Monopoly is a terrible thing, till you have it.

  Rupert Murdoch

  Terrible, Terrible Things

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• I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly.

  Steven Wright

  Funny, Humor, Thinking

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• Freedom requires that government keep the channels of competition and opportunity open, prevent monopolies, economic abuse and domination.

  Herbert Hoover

  Opportunity, Government, Presidential

  Herbert Hoover (1946). “Addresses Upon the American Road”

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• We should distinguish at this point between "government" and "state" ... A government is the consensual organization by which we adjudicate disputes, defend our rights, and provide for certain common needs ... A state on the other hand, is a coercive organization asserting or enjoying a monopoly over the use of physical force in some geographic area and exercising power over its subjects.

  David Boaz

  Exercise, Rights, Government

  David Boaz (1997). “Libertarianism: A Primer”, p.208, Simon and Schuster

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• Monopoly is the condition of every successful business.

  Peter Thiel

  Zero, Successful, Conditions

  Peter Thiel, Blake Masters (2014). “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future”, p.29, Crown Business

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• I'm standing on my Monopoly board that means I'm on top of my game

  Eminem

  Mean, Games, Boards

  Song: No Love

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• I describe what is happening as 'food fascism' because this system can only survive through totalitarian control. With patents on seed, an illegitimate legal system is manipulated to create seed monopolies. Seed laws that require uniformity - which criminalize diversity and the use of open-pollinated seeds - are fascist in nature. Suing farmers after contaminating their crops, [...] is another aspect of this fascism. Pseudo-hygiene laws that criminalize local, artisanal food are food fascism. And attacks on scientists and the silencing of independent research [...] are examples of knowledge fascism.

  Vandana Shiva

  Independent, Law, Hygiene

  "Farming Free: An Interview With Food Sovereignty Activist Vandana Shiva". Interview with Thaddeus Christian, www.motherearthnews.com. June/July 2014.

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• The great danger to the consumer is the monopoly -whether private or governmental. His most effective protection is free competition at home and free trade throughout the world. The consumer is protected from being exploited by one seller by the existence of another seller from whom he can buy and who is eager to sell to him. Alternative sources of supply protect the consumer far more effectively than all the Ralph Naders of the world.

  Milton Friedman

  Home, Competition, Alternatives

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• Before the monopoly should be permitted, there must be reason to believe it will do some good - for society, and not just for monopoly holders.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Believe, Reason, Should

  "May the Source Be With You". Article adapted from "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World", www.wired.com. December 01, 2001.

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• In the whole history of capitalism, no one has been able to establish a coercive monopoly by means of competition in a free market...Every single coercive monopoly that exists or ever has existed...was created and made possible only by an act of government...which granted special privileges (not obtainable in a free market) to a man or a group of men, and forbade all others to enter that particular field.

  Nathaniel Branden

  Mean, Men, Competition

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• Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.

  Mario Puzo

  Competition, Genius, Scandal

  1969 The Godfather, bk.3, ch.14.

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• Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Capitalist Economy, Liberty, Libertarian

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• People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

  Adam Smith

  Invisible Hand, People, Competition

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)

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• How come there's only one Monopolies Commission?

  Nigel Rees

  Funny, Laughter, Bureaucracy

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• Listening to others, especially those with whom we disagree, tests our own ideas and beliefs. It forces us to recognize, with humility, that we don't have a monopoly on the truth.

  Janet Yellen

  Graduation, Humility, Listening To Others

  "The Best Career Advice From 2014 Commencement Speeches" by Jill Jacinto, www.businessinsider.com. May 23, 2014.

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• We don't have a monopoly. We have market share. There's a difference.

  Steve Ballmer

  Business, Humorous, Differences

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• No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise.

  Barack Obama

  Party, Democracy, Compromise

  Second Democratic Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 6 September 2012, Charlotte, North Carolina

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• But no man has a monopoly of conscience.

  Mary Augusta Ward

  Men, Conscience

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• The best of all monopoly profits is a quiet life.

  Sir John Richard Hicks

  Monopoly Power, Quiet, Economics

  1935 Econometrica,'The Theory of Monopoly'.

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• Monopoly controls have been the exception in free societies; they have been the rule in closed societies.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Exception, Has Beens, Free Society

  "May the Source Be With You". www.wired.com. December 21, 2001.

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• We also learn that this country and the Western world have no monopoly of goodness and truth and scholarship, we begin to appreciate the ingredients that are indispensable to making a better world. In a life of learning that is, perhaps, the greatest lesson of all.

  John Hope Franklin

  Country, Truth, Life Lesson

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• Unless you become more watchful in your states and check the spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will in the end find that...the control over your dearest interests has passed into the hands of these corporations.

  Andrew Jackson

  Hands, Over You, Corporations

  Andrew Jackson (2009). “Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren”, p.1525, Wildside Press LLC

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• Only government can cause inflation, preserve monopoly, and punish enterprise.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  Government, Causes, Enterprise

  William F. Buckley, Jr. (2009). “The Reagan I Knew”, p.241, Basic Books

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• We learned long ago that liberty could be preserved only by limiting in some way the freedom of action of individuals; that otherwise liberty would necessarily yield to absolutism; and in the same way we have learned that unless there be regulation of competition, its excesses will lead to the destruction of competition, and monopoly will take its place.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Yield, Long Ago, Competition

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