Thomas Friedman quotes

Thomas Friedman is an American journalist, author, and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner known for his work at The New York Times. His analysis covers foreign affairs, globalization, and environmental issues. He has significantly shaped public debate on international relations and the global economy. Here are 118 of his quotes:

The historical debate is over. The answer is free-market capitalism. (Thomas Friedman)
If you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, the bad neighborhoods are going to visit you. View quote
Thomas Friedman
The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. View quote
Thomas Friedman
I was in Bangalore, India, the Silicon Valley of India, when I realized that the world was flat. View quote
Thomas Friedman
Supply chains cannot tolerate even 24 hours of disruption. So if you lose your place in the supply chain because of wild behavior you could lose a lot. It would be like pouring cement down one of your oil wells. View quote
Thomas Friedman
The Golden Straitjacket is the defining political-economic garment of globalization. [...] The tighter you wear it, the more gold it produces. View quote
Thomas Friedman
It created a global platform that allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, than anything we have ever seen in the history of the world. View quote
Thomas Friedman
The only engine big enough to impact Mother Nature is Father Greed. View quote
Thomas Friedman
Only if you give the Palestinians something to lose is there a hope that they will agree to moderate their demands.... I believe that as soon as Ahmed has a seat in the bus, he will limit his demands. View quote
Thomas Friedman
The first rule of holes is when you're in one, stop digging. When you're in three, bring a lot of shovels. View quote
Thomas Friedman
You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we'll look back at the first decade of the 21st century-when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all-and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we'd crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once? (Thomas Friedman)
I basically did all the library research for this book on Google, and it not only saved me enormous amounts of time but actually gave me a much richer offering of research in a shorter time. View quote
Thomas Friedman
Two things are going on at the same time with the flattening of the world: The relentless quest for efficiency is squeezing some of the fat out of life. View quote
Thomas Friedman
We need to become energy independent or at least aspire to that. View quote
Thomas Friedman
No, most of our political elite has not realized that the world is flat. View quote
Thomas Friedman
I am hoping, though, that many of them have kids, who, when they have a moment to take a break from their iPods, Internet, or Google, will explain to their parents running the country just how the world is being flattened. View quote
Thomas Friedman
There is no substitute for face-to-face reporting and research. View quote
Thomas Friedman
The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. View quote
Thomas Friedman
Basically all the world's computer parts come from the same supply chain that runs from Korea, down through coastal China, over to Taiwan, and down to Malaysia. View quote
Thomas Friedman
The next six months in Iraq - which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there - are the most important six months in U. S. foreign policy in a long, long time. View quote
Thomas Friedman
The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it - and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful. (Thomas Friedman)
Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months - probably sooner - whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out. View quote
Thomas Friedman
Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile. View quote
Thomas Friedman
I think that we're going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool's errand. View quote
Thomas Friedman
We're at the beginning of, I think, the decisive, I would say, six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election - you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it. View quote
Thomas Friedman