我所专攻的学科，晚近才成为科学的一支；而为纪念诺贝尔先生所颁发的经济学奖，则是1968年瑞典中央银行为庆祝成立300周年才开始设立的。我必须承认，这样的背景确实带给我一些利益冲突。因为，各位可能知道，根据我在货币理论方面的研究结果，我认为由电脑取代中央银行的功能反而更好，只需在电脑上设定货币数量能有稳定的成长率即可。不过对我个人以及一小批被精挑细选的经济学家同僚来说，值得庆幸的是，我的研究结论未被采纳——否则今天就没有瑞典中央银行来捐资设立此刻本人有幸荣获的奖项了。也许从这里可以引申出：塞翁失马，焉知非福?我不知道自己是否真的如此，但是我想有些经济学者可能是这样的。
获奖的心情虽然愉快，但必须承认，在过去的八个礼拜中，我深刻体会到天下不只没有白吃的午餐，也没有白拿的奖。由于诺贝尔奖是全球瞩目的殊荣，因此一经公布，得奖人就立刻成为各种疑难杂症的专家，吸引全球各杂志、电视台的采访记者及摄影人员蜂拥而至。我被问到的问题可以说是包罗万象，从如何治疗普通的感冒，到肯尼迪总统亲笔签名信函的市价如何。受到这样的关注，固然令人受宠若惊，但也难免导致自满之心。我认为以专业之外的事情干扰诺贝尔奖得主，固然亟需痛下针砭，但我们这些桂冠得主对过度自我膨胀也应有所戒慎恐惧。我就自己的专业领域所开出的解药是，设立更多这类的奖项。不过，想要取代像诺贝尔奖这么成功的产品，恐怕并非易事。也因此，我想我们这些人的自我膨胀，可能还会持续相当长的时间吧！
（1976年12月10日）
Milton Friedman's speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1976
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour and privilege for me to be here tonight, sharing in the reflected glory from my distinguished colleagues, not only the six fellow members of the class of 1976, but the many more who, over the past 76 years, have made the term Nobel Laureate the highest mark of distinction to which a scholar can aspire.
My science is a late-comer, the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel having been established only in 1968 by the Central Bank of Sweden to celebrate its tercentenary. That circumstance does, I admit, leave me with something of a conflict of interest. As some of you may know, my monetary studies have led me to the conclusion that central banks could profitably be replaced by computers geared to provide a steady rate of growth in the quantity of money. Fortunately for me personally, and for a select group of fellow economists, that conclusion has had no practical impact… else there would have been no Central Bank of Sweden to have established the award I am honoured to receive. Should I draw the moral that sometimes to fail is to succeed? Whether I do or not, I suspect some economists may.
Delighted as I am with the award, I must confess that the past eight weeks have impressed on me that not only is there no free lunch, there is no free prize. It is a tribute to the world-wide repute of the Nobel awards that the announcement of an award converts its recipient into an instant expert on all and sundry, and unleashes hordes of ravenous newsmen and photographers from journals and T.V. stations around the world. I myself have been asked my opinion on everything from a cure for the common cold to the market value of a letter signed by John F. Kennedy. Needless to say, the attention is flattering, but also corrupting. Somehow, we badly need an antidote for both the inflated attention granted a Nobel Laureate in areas outside his competence and the inflated ego each of us is in so much danger of acquiring. My own field suggests one obvious antidote: competition through the establishment of many more such awards. But a product that has been so successful is not easy to displace. Hence, I suspect that our inflated egos are safe for a good long time to come.
I am deeply grateful to you not only for the honor you have conferred on me, but equally for your unfailing Swedish hospitality and friendship.
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