Harry Browne Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Funny, Sarcastic, Integrity

  98 Copy quote

• 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

  Government, Giving, Important

  45 Copy quote

• 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

  53 Copy quote

• 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

  72 Copy quote

• 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, Government

  68 Copy quote

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

  Harry Browne

  Responsibility, Freedom And Responsibility, Interconnected

  65 Copy quote

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

  Harry Browne

  Inspirational, Burden, Shoulders

  45 Copy quote

• Disarmed citizens encourage crime and violence. Armed citizens encourage criminals to find a safer line of work.

  Harry Browne

  Violence, Criminals, Citizens

  31 Copy quote

• 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

  Harry Browne (2000). “The Great Libertarian Offer”, Liam Works

  13 Copy quote

• 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, Going Out

  21 Copy quote

• 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

  Army, Government, Microsoft

  8 Copy quote

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

  Harry Browne

  Government, Issues, Choices

  24 Copy quote

• 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, Government, Ideas

  35 Copy quote

• The best kept secret in the investing world: Almost nothing turns out as expected.

  Harry Browne

  Best Kept Secrets, Investing, World

  Harry Browne (1999). “Fail-Safe Investing: Lifelong Financial Security in 30 Minutes”, p.145, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

  4 Copy quote

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

  Harry Browne

  Insecure, Political, Promise

  61 Copy quote

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

  Harry Browne

  Letting Go, Real, Government

  32 Copy quote

• The bad consequences of a government program usually don't show up immediately. And the delay may be long enough to hide the connection between the program and its results. So government never has to say it's sorry - never has to take responsibility for ht misery it causes. Instead it can blame everything on personal greed, profit-hungry corporations, and the 'private sector.' And the government's cure for the problems is to impose bigger programs, more regulation and higher taxes.

  Harry Browne

  Sorry, Responsibility, Government

  15 Copy quote

• There are no violent gangs fighting over aspirin territories. There are no violent gangs fighting over whisky territories or computer territories or anything else that's legal. There are only criminal gangs fighting over territories covering drugs, gambling, prostitution, and other victimless crimes. Making a non-violent activity a crime creates a black market, which attracts criminals and gangs, which turns what was once a relatively harmless activity affecting a small group of people into a widespread epidemic of drug use and gang warfare.

  Harry Browne

  Fighting, Drug Use, Epidemics

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Retirement, Government, Social

  18 Copy quote

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

  Harry Browne

  Government, Liberty, Firsts

  28 Copy quote

• 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

  17 Copy quote

• 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, Political

  Second Amendment rally in Arkansas, August 8, 2000.

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Government, Law, Way

  8 Copy quote

• ...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, Fbi Agents, Rights

  30 Copy quote

• 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

  Government, Human Nature, Politician

  31 Copy quote

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