There's a difference between being able to make long distance phone calls cheaper on the Internet and walking around Riyadh with a PDA where you can have all of Google in your pocket. It's a difference in degree that's so enormous it becomes a difference in kind.

Thomas Friedman

There's no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student's achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here's what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children's education can also make a huge difference in a student's achievement.

Thomas Friedman

When I was growing up, my parents told me, 'Finish your dinner. People in China and India are starving.' I tell my daughters, 'Finish your homework. People in India and China are starving for your job.'

Thomas Friedman

The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention argues that no two countries that are both part of the same global supply chain will ever fight a war as long as they are each part of that supply chain.

Thomas Friedman

McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15.

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.

Thomas Friedman

In Globalization 1.0, which began around 1492, the world went from size large to size medium. In Globalization 2.0, the era that introduced us to multinational companies, it went from size medium to size small. And then around 2000 came Globalization 3.0, in which the world went from being small to tiny.

Thomas Friedman

I'm a capitalist. I believe in capitalism. But capitalism only works if you have safety nets to deal with people who are naturally left behind and brutalized by it.

Thomas Friedman

The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist.

Thomas Friedman

Do you know what my favorite renewable fuel is? An ecosystem for innovation.

Thomas Friedman

When I wrote 'The World Is Flat,' I said the world is flat. Yeah, we're all connected. Facebook didn't exist; Twitter was a sound; the cloud was in the sky; 4G was a parking place; LinkedIn was a prison; applications were what you sent to college; and Skype, for most people, was a typo.

Thomas Friedman

I said that more people in more places can now compete, connect and collaborate with equal power and equal tools than ever before.

Thomas Friedman

The historical debate is over. The answer is free-market capitalism.

Thomas Friedman

I was in Bangalore, India, the Silicon Valley of India, when I realized that the world was flat.

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.

Thomas Friedman

If you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, the bad neighborhoods are going to visit you.

Thomas Friedman

No matter where I go - London, Beirut, Jerusalem, Washington, Beijing, or Bangalore - I'm always looking to rediscover that land of ten thousand lakes where politics actually worked to make people's lives better, not pull them apart.

Thomas Friedman

By 'flat' I did not mean that the world is getting equal. I said that more people in more places can now compete, connect and collaborate with equal power and equal tools than ever before. That's why an Indian in Bangalore can take care of the office work of American doctors or read the X-rays of German hospitals.

Thomas Friedman

We are led by lawyers who do not understand either technology or balance sheets.

Thomas Friedman

There is no substitute for face-to-face reporting and research.

Thomas Friedman

No, most of our political elite has not realized that the world is flat.

Thomas Friedman