Harry Browne quotes

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

#Children #Fighting #Names

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

#Agency #Government #Office

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

#Government #Hands #Liberty

A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot - because the first leads inevitably to the second.
-- Harry Browne

#Government #Liberty #Littles

The police can't stop an intruder, mugger, or stalker from hurting you. They can pursue him only after he has hurt or killed you. Protecting yourself from harm is your responsibility, and you are far less likely to be hurt in a neighborhood of gun-owners than in one of disarmed citizens - even if you don't own a gun yourself.
-- Harry Browne

#Hurt #Responsibility #Gun

The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice.
-- Harry Browne

#War #Government #Careers

Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, 'See, if it wasn't for us, you couldn't walk.'
-- Harry Browne

#Government #Hands #Crutches

A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.
-- Harry Browne

#Inspirational #Burden #Shoulders

The American heritage was one of individual liberty, personal responsibility and freedom from government ... Unfortunately ... that heritage has been lost. Americans no longer have the freedom to direct their own lives ... Today, it is the government that is free - free to do whatever it wants. There is no subject, no issue, no matter ... that is not subject to legislation.
-- Harry Browne

#Responsibility #Issues #Government

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

#Life Is #Figures

Whatever the issue, let freedom offer us a hundred choices, instead of having government force one answer on everyone.
-- Harry Browne

#Issues #Government #Choices

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

#Giving #Important #Want

Profit is a reward for satisfying the desire of someone else.
-- Harry Browne

#Morning #Desire #Rewards

I say that the Second Amendment doesn't allow for exceptions - or else it would have read that the right "to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, unless Congress chooses otherwise." And because there are no exceptions, I disagree with my fellow panelists who say the existing gun laws should be enforced. Those laws are unconstitutional [and] wrong - because they put you at a disadvantage to armed criminals, to whom the laws are no inconvenience.
-- Harry Browne

#Gun #Law #Second Amendment

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

#People #Moral #Humanitarian

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

#Thinking #Ideas #Government

For those looking for security, be forewarned that there's nothing more insecure than a political promise.
-- Harry Browne

#Insecure #Political #Promise

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

#Government #Liberty #Principles

When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.
-- Harry Browne

#World #Capability #Offers

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

#Simple #Ideas #Government

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

#Judging #Trials #Assumption

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

#Jobs #Choices #Given

Asset forfeiture is a mockery of the Bill of Rights. There is no presumption of innocence, no need to prove you guilty (or even charge you with a crime), no right to a jury trial, no right to confront your accuser, no right to a court-appointed attorney (even if the government has just stolen all your money), and no right to compensation for the property that's been taken.
-- Harry Browne

#Taken #Rights #Government

The income tax is the biggest single intrusion suffered by the American people. It forces every worker to be a bookkeeper, to open his records to the government, to explain his expenses, to fear conviction for a harmless accounting error. Compliance wastes billions of dollars. It penalizes savings and creates an enormous drag on the U.S. economy. It is incompatible with a free society, and we aren’t libertarians if we tolerate it.
-- Harry Browne

#Errors #Government #People

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

#Miracle #Vision #Events

Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats.
-- Harry Browne

#Liberty #Campaigns #Libertarian

When paper money systems begin to crack at the seams, the run to gold could be explosive.
-- Harry Browne

#Running #Gold #Cracks

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

#Bullying #Hate #America

...The Bill of Rights is a literal and absolute document. The First Amendment doesn't say you have a right to speak out unless the government has a 'compelling interest' in censoring the Internet. The Second Amendment doesn't say you have the right to keep and bear arms until some madman plants a bomb. The Fourth Amendment doesn't say you have the right to be secure from search and seizure unless some FBI agent thinks you fit the profile of a terrorist. The government has no right to interfere with any of these freedoms under any circumstances.
-- Harry Browne

#Thinking #Rights #Government

It's wrong for someone to confiscate your money, give it to someone else, and call that "compassion."
-- Harry Browne

#Compassion #Giving #Liberty

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

#Trying #Liberty #Rich

The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do - by yourself, upon your own initiative.
-- Harry Browne

#Important #Initiative

What we really need is compassion of the mind - compassion for others that is directed intelligently and produces truly compassionate results.
-- Harry Browne

#Compassion #Mind #Needs

I want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution.
-- Harry Browne

#Government #Liberty #Want

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

#Government #Giving #Liberty

In almost all matters, the real question should be: why are we letting government handle this?
-- Harry Browne

#Letting Go #Real #Government

Give government the weapons to fight your enemy and it will use them against you.
-- Harry Browne

#Fighting #Government #Giving

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

#Country #People #Libertarian

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

#Running #Giving Up #Cancer

The Bill of Rights isn't some legalistic fine print. It was written to make our lives freer, more prosperous, and happier. By forsaking it, America has become no better than any other country in the world.
-- Harry Browne

#Country #Rights #America

It is well known that in war, the first casualty is truth - that during any war truth is forsaken for propaganda.
-- Harry Browne

#War #Firsts #Truth Is

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

#Political #Benefits #Libertarian