Harry Browne Quotes

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.

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.

America rules the world – by force.

Each person is living for himself; his own happiness is all he can ever personally feel.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I’m sorry that I can’t snap my fingers and undo 50 years of bad American foreign policy.

The Constitution isn’t written in Chinese, Swahili or Sanskrit. It’s in plain English.

Since no one but you can know what’s best for you, government control can’t make your life better.

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

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.

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.

It has long been apparent that many people in the media don’t believe you’re competent to make your own decisions.

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.

There was no military reason to drop atomic bombs on Japan. They were used as terrorist weapons – killing innocent people to influence other people.

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.

For most of our history, Americans enjoyed both liberty and security from foreign threats.

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.

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.

You are where you are today because you have chosen to be there.

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.

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.

Freedom and responsibility aren’t interconnected things. They are the same thing.

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.

A Libertarian society of unfettered individualism spreads its benefits to virtually everyone – not just those who have the resources to seize political power.

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.

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.