Top 100 Harry Browne Quotes
#1. A Libertarian society of unfettered individualism spreads its benefits to virtually everyone - not just those who have the resources to seize political power.
Harry Browne
#2. If a law could keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be virtually no gun crime at all.
Harry Browne
#3. Our government, taxes, and ideas of freedom are already duplicates of the Old World. Our politicians determine how we should live our lives - and our individual liberties are sacrificed for the benefit of the Fatherland.
Harry Browne
#4. Government doesn't work. You work, I work, Federal Express works, Microsoft works, the Salvation Army works, Alcoholics Anonymous works, but government doesn't.
Harry Browne
#5. A fair trial is one in which the rules of evidence are honored, the accused has competent counsel, and the judge enforces the proper courtroom procedures - a trial in which every assumption can be challenged.
Harry Browne
#6. I want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution.
Harry Browne
#7. Government seems to operate on the principle that if even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently, no one can be allowed to be free.
Harry Browne
#8. When you give politicians the power to do what you think is right you're automatically giving politicians the power to do what you think is wrong.
Harry Browne
#9. It's important to realize that whenever you give power to politicians or bureaucrats, it will be used for what they want, not for what you want.
Harry Browne
#10. Like many people, most Libertarians feel empathy and sympathy for less fortunate people. But they know you can't have perfection in a world of limited resources.
Harry Browne
#11. Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, 'See, if it wasn't for us, you couldn't walk.'
Harry Browne
#12. And when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he's upset only because you aren't doing what he selfishly wants you to do.
Harry Browne
#13. So what is government? ... Very simply, it is an agency of coercion. Of course, there are other agencies of coercion - such as the Mafia. So to be more precise, government is the agency of coercion that has flags in front of its offices.
Harry Browne
#14. The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice.
Harry Browne
#15. A welfare state is frightened of every poor person who tries to get in and every rich person who tries to get out.
Harry Browne
#16. If there were no shortage of human resources in this world, consumers could buy everything and have everything they wanted. Then there would be no point in wondering how to succeed.
Harry Browne
#17. While most people in TV, radio, and the press have treated me wonderfully, some of the most important people want to pretend I don't exist.
Harry Browne
#18. When you give up the hope that some advisor, some system, some source of inside tips is going to give you a shortcut to wealth, you'll finally begin to gain control over your financial future.
Harry Browne
#19. The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do - by yourself, upon your own initiative.
Harry Browne
#20. But, actually, it is only Americans who say that our freedoms and prosperity are the reason foreigners hate us. If you ask the foreigners, they make it clear that it's America's bullying foreign policy they detest.
Harry Browne
#21. Only free people have an incentive to be virtuous. Only people who bear the consequences of their own acts will care about those consequences and try to learn from their mistakes.
Harry Browne
#22. You have only one life, and no one else will live it for you. Shouldn't you take the time right now to figure out what that life is all about?
Harry Browne
#23. Freedom and responsibility aren't interconnected things. They are the same thing.
Harry Browne
#24. The marketplace is a wondrous institution. It harnesses the self-interest of each of us and puts it to work for the benefit of all. And it does so without intruding upon our desires, our privacy, or our freedom. It is regulation by reality, not by coercion.
Harry Browne
#25. Communities don't think, don't believe, don't want, don't have needs, don't have interests and don't make decisions. Only individuals have minds that generate desires and needs - and only individuals can make choices and decisions.
Harry Browne
#26. The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, "See if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk".
Harry Browne
#27. Most politicians believe in just one thing - winning elections. They'll say anything to get in office and stay there.
Harry Browne
#28. Each person is living for himself; his own happiness is all he can ever personally feel.
Harry Browne
#29. Give government the weapons to fight your enemy and it will use them against you.
Harry Browne
#30. Whatever the issue, let freedom offer us a hundred choices, instead of having government force one answer on everyone.
Harry Browne
#31. I have no temptation to vote, to campaign, to try and stop a candidate who promises new follies.
Harry Browne
#32. I've concentrated upon the things I control, and used that control to remove the restrictions and complications from my life.
Harry Browne
#33. In almost all matters, the real question should be: why are we letting government handle this?
Harry Browne
#34. Once we realize that government doesn't work, we'll know that the only way to improve government is by reducing its size - by doing away with laws, by getting rid of programs, by making government spend and tax less, by reducing government as far as we can.
Harry Browne
#35. You are where you are today because you have chosen to be there.
Harry Browne
#36. Government is a parasite-a cancer that by nature tries to spread deeper into society. Those who want to run others' lives won't give up and start minding their own business.
Harry Browne
#38. You don't need an explanation for everything, Recognize that there are such things as miracles - events for which there are no ready explanations. Later knowledge may explain those events quite easily.
Harry Browne
#39. In the 1880s, people all over the world looked to America for inspiration. Its very existence was proof that it was possible to have a relatively free and peaceful country. No income tax, no foreign wars, no welfare state, no intrusions on civil liberties.
Harry Browne
#40. It isn't possible to give government just a little control over the economy and our lives. Once we cede that power to government, it uses the power to take more from us. That's why every year the government controls more of our lives.
Harry Browne
#41. You owe it to yourself to be the best person possible. Because if you are, others will want to be with you, want to provide you with the things you want in exchange for what you're giving to them.
Harry Browne
#42. It has long been apparent that many people in the media don't believe you're competent to make your own decisions.
Harry Browne
#43. When people do things for you, it's because they want to - because you, in some way, give them something meaningful that makes them want to please you, not because anyone owes you anything.
Harry Browne
#44. Give politicians power and it certainly will be abused eventually - if not by today's politicians, then by their successors.
Harry Browne
#45. When paper money systems begin to crack at the seams, the run to gold could be explosive.
Harry Browne
#46. Immigrants used to come to America seeking freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from government. Now they come looking for free health care, free education, and a free lunch.
Harry Browne
#47. You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.
Harry Browne
#48. Left-wing politicians take away your liberty in the name of children and of fighting poverty, while right-wing politicians do it in the name of family values and fighting drugs. Either way, government gets bigger and you become less free.
Harry Browne
#49. Can you think of a single area of government in which George Bush hasn't already made things worse than Bill Clinton did?
Harry Browne
#50. The communitarians may say you've been enjoying too much individual freedom, and that you must give up some of that for the benefit of the community. But they really mean that they want more power over your life - to force you to subsidize, obey and conform to their choices.
Harry Browne
#51. In my experience, people who are truly compassionate rarely use the word "compassion." Those who do talk compassion generally intend to be compassionate with your money, not their own. It's wrong for someone to confiscate your money, give it to someone else, and call that 'compassion'.
Harry Browne
#52. The press is hostile to the idea of liberty. Most people in the press are for big government. Most people think that the solution to anything, whether it's health care problems, education, whatever it is - it's got to be more government.
Harry Browne
#53. It is well known that in war, the first casualty is truth - that during any war truth is forsaken for propaganda.
Harry Browne
#54. Everything we know about human nature and about government tells us that individuals using their own money will achieve far more good for themselves and far more for others than politicians spending money they didn't have to work to earn.
Harry Browne
#55. Everyone will experience the consequences of his own acts. If his act are right, he'll get good consequences; if they're not, he'll suffer for it.
Harry Browne
#56. Everything you want in life has a price connected to it. There's a price to pay if you want to make things better, a price to pay just for leaving things as they are, a price for everything.
Harry Browne
#57. A secure individual ... knows that the responsibility for anything concerning his life remains with himself-and he accepts that responsibility.
Harry Browne
#58. Some people object to libertarian ideas because there are too many irresponsible people in the world - people who will cause trouble if the government doesn't restrain them.
Harry Browne
#59. I'm old enough to remember the end of World War II. On Aug. 14, 1946, a year after the Japanese were defeated, most newspapers and magazines had single articles commemorating the end of the war.
Harry Browne
#60. If younger people see older people who haven't planned ahead and have to rely on charity, the young will be more likely to provide for the future. Today when someone plans poorly, the only consequence people see is a demand for more government.
Harry Browne
#61. The coercive power of government is always a beacon to those who want to dominate others
summoning the worst dregs of society to Washington to use that power to impose their will upon others.
Harry Browne
#62. Libertarians know that a free country has nothing to fear from anyone coming in or going out - while a welfare state is scared to death of poor people coming in and rich people getting out.
Harry Browne
#63. Get your money out of the country before your country gets your money out of you
Harry Browne
#64. A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot - because the first leads inevitably to the second.
Harry Browne
#65. Government is force, pure and simple. There's no way to sugar-coat that. And because government is force, it will attract the worst elements of society - people who want to use government to avoid having to earn their living and to avoid having to persuade others to accept their ideas voluntarily.
Harry Browne
#66. If you ask the government to impose morality, then moral questions will be decided by whoever has the most political power.
Harry Browne
#67. For most of our history, Americans enjoyed both liberty and security from foreign threats.
Harry Browne
#68. World War II has always been of great interest to me. I've known for decades that it was just one more war the politicians suckered us into.
Harry Browne
#69. Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats.
Harry Browne
#70. Profit is a reward for satisfying the desire of someone else.
Harry Browne
#71. There was no military reason to drop atomic bombs on Japan. They were used as terrorist weapons - killing innocent people to influence other people.
Harry Browne
#72. Since no one but you can know what's best for you, government control can't make your life better.
Harry Browne
#73. Forcing people to be generous isn't humanitarian, effective, compassionate or moral. Only acts that are truly voluntary for all concerned can be truly compassionate.
Harry Browne
#74. Not only can no one predict the future, we don't understand the present - and there isn't even any certainty about the past.
Harry Browne
#75. The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.
Harry Browne
#76. The best kept secret in the investing world: Almost nothing turns out as expected.
Harry Browne
#77. Libertarians understand a very simple fact of life: Government doesn't work. It can't deliver the mail on time, it doesn't keep our cities safe, it doesn't educate our children properly.
Harry Browne
#78. The American way was for commerce, personal relationships, and religion to be voluntary. No one was forced to participate in something he didn't want.
Harry Browne
#79. Winning an argument is of no value. What you want is to win a convert. And people who lose arguments are more likely to beef up their current convictions instead of converting to your way of thinking.
Harry Browne
#80. You don't have to buy from anyone. You don't have to work at any particular job. You don't have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose.
Harry Browne
#81. He doesn't sacrifice himself for others, nor does he expect others to be sacrificed for him. He takes the third alternative - he finds relationships that are mutually beneficial so that no sacrifice is required.
Harry Browne
#82. When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.
Harry Browne
#83. Things will get better only when you make the changes that are necessary to make them better.
Harry Browne
#84. The problem with politics isn't the money; it's the power.
Harry Browne
#85. Being a politician means never having to say you're sorry. You don't have to say, 'I never should have voted to subsidize that ridiculous Enron project in India.' ... After all, they're greedy businessmen and you're a selfless public servant.
Harry Browne
#86. Social Security is inherently unsound for the simple reason that it's a political program run by politicians for political purposes ... Social Security operates on a very simple principle: the politicians take your money from you and squander it.
Harry Browne
#87. I'm sorry that I can't snap my fingers and undo 50 years of bad American foreign policy.
Harry Browne
#88. Once upon a time, government budgets were balanced, our money was sound, the streets were safe, and taxes imposed by all levels of government took less than 10% of our income.
Harry Browne
#89. I found that I was getting a warm reception for my message of freeing you from the income tax, releasing you from Social Security, ending the insane war on drugs, restoring gun rights, and reducing the federal government to just its constitutional functions.
Harry Browne
#90. Disarmed citizens encourage crime and violence. Armed citizens encourage criminals to find a safer line of work.
Harry Browne
#91. Government doesn't work. That's the first lesson we must learn if we want to improve society.
Harry Browne
#92. The answer is simple: You are you, the person who will live with the consequences of what you do. No one else can be responsible, because no one else will experience the consequences of your actions as you will.
Harry Browne
#93. The more directly individual rewards are tied to individual achievements, the greater incentive there is to increase one's individual effort. Joint Efforts
Harry Browne
#94. The Constitution isn't written in Chinese, Swahili or Sanskrit. It's in plain English.
Harry Browne
#95. I am running for president because it is obvious that no Democrat or Republican is ever going to stop the relentless growth of the federal government. only a Libertarian is going to set you free.
Harry Browne
#96. Social Security is a fraudulent scheme in which the government collect money from you for your retirement - and immediately spend the money on something else.
Harry Browne
#97. The problem is big government. If whoever controls government can impose his way upon you, you have to fight constantly to prevent the control from being harmful. With small, limited government, it doesn't much matter who controls it, because it can't do you much harm.
Harry Browne
#98. A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.
Harry Browne
#99. Politicians are notoriously economically illiterate. And even when they know what would be the right thing, we don't really expect them to do it.
Harry Browne
#100. Whenever I say that America has become an empire, someone is sure to say I'm being ridiculous.
Harry Browne
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