To adopt terms that Milton Friedman would appreciate, institutions like the Volker Fund and the Mont Pèlerin Society are the venture capitalists of the intellectual world, allocating a broad dispersion of small investments with an extended time horizon and an understanding that one spectacular success can compensate for the toll of many minor failures. Friedman was the benefi ciary of a network of organizations established by individuals who were uniquely reconciled to the assumption that the nature of their impact would not be revealed until long after their ability to appreciate it had passed.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 442