Harry Browne quotes

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)
The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it. View quote
Harry Browne
Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats. View quote
Harry Browne
A Libertarian society of unfettered individualism spreads its benefits to virtually everyone - not just those who have the resources to seize political power. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do - by yourself, upon your own initiative. View quote
Harry Browne
You are where you are today because you have chosen to be there. View quote
Harry Browne
I want government small enough to fit inside the Constitution. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
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 of leaving thing as they are, a price for everything. (Harry Browne)
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. View quote
Harry Browne
A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
It is well known that in war, the first casualty is truth - that during any war truth is forsaken for propaganda. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
Everyone will experience the consequences of his own acts. If his acts are right, he'll get good consequences; if they're not, he'll suffer for it. View quote
Harry Browne
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. View quote
Harry Browne
Voluntary association produces the free market - where each person can choose among a multitude of possibilities. (Harry Browne)
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. View quote
Harry Browne
Whatever the price, identify it now. What will you have to go through to get where you want to be? There is a price you can pay to be free of the situation once and for all. It may be a fantastic price or a tiny one -- but there is a price. View quote
Harry Browne
Contrary to all the blather we here about the unique goodness of the American people or our religious heritage or anything else, the one thing that set this country apart from all others was the Bill of Rights. View quote
Harry Browne
There was no military reason to drop atomic bombs on Japan. They were used as terrorist weapons - killing innocent people to influence other people. View quote
Harry Browne