Top 90 Harry Browne Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “The government’s War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice.”

— Harry Browne

52. “The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.”

— Harry Browne

53. “Find out what people want and help them get it!”

— Harry Browne

54. “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

55. “A free and prosperous society has no fear of anyone entering it. But a welfare state is scared to death of every poor person who tries to get in and every rich person who tries to get out.”

— Harry Browne

56. “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

57. “To be self-reliant is to recognize that no one else is as concerned about your future as you are and that no one knows as much about you as you do.”

— Harry Browne

58. “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

59. “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

60. “Get your money out of the country before your country gets your money out of you.”

— Harry Browne

61. “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

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

— Harry Browne

63. “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

64. “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

65. “Absolutely every government regulation is enforced by violence. If you’ve never seen that violence, it’s because you’ve been careful, obedient, or lucky.”

— Harry Browne

66. “There’s no final resting place – short of death – where you can stop having to earn what you want.”

— Harry Browne

67. “Never focus your attention on anyone’s weaknesses – his temper, sloppiness, poor logic, dishonesty, whatever. Recognize these shortcomings, take them into consideration, but don’t waste your time complaining about them. Instead, pay attention to what your actions should be in order to deal with him.”

— Harry Browne

68. “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

69. “One person devotes his life to helping the poor. Another one lies and steals. Still another person tries to create better products and services for which he hopes to be paid handsomely. One woman devotes herself to her husband and children. Another seeks a career as a singer. In every case, the basic motivation has been the same. Each person is doing what he believes will bring him happiness. What varies between them is the means each has chosen to gain his happiness.”

— Harry Browne

70. “An individual might say, “I don’t want to change anyone.” And yet, he might still spend a great deal of his time trying to get others to agree with his views, or trying to prevent someone from doing something he thinks will be bad for him, or trying to change people by participating in a movement over a burning issue, or voting to prevent others from doing what they want to do. In all these ways, he’s trying to change others – to make them do other than what their natures lead them to do.”

— Harry Browne

71. “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.”

— Harry Browne

72. “I’ve concentrated upon the things I control, and used that control to remove the restrictions and complications from my life.”

— Harry Browne

73. “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

74. “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

75. “I have no temptation to vote, to campaign, to try and stop a candidate who promises new follies.”

— Harry Browne

76. “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

77. “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

78. “The power of choice. You have it. But you forfeit it when you imagine that you can choose for others. You can’t. But you can choose for yourself...”

— Harry Browne

79. “It is not how long you work at some task that determines what you’ll receive for it in exchange. It is the value someone else places upon the product or service that determines what it is worth in exchange.”

— Harry Browne

80. “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

81. “A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot – because the first leads inevitably to the second.”

— Harry Browne

82. “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.”

— Harry Browne

83. “The problem with politics isn’t the money; it’s the power.”

— Harry Browne

84. “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

85. “Give politicians power and it certainly will be abused eventually – if not by today’s politicians, then by their successors.”

— Harry Browne

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

— Harry Browne

87. “Things will get better only when you make the changes that are necessary to make them better.”

— Harry Browne

88. “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

89. “As I lie on my couch by the fireplace, looking out from my hillside home at the snow leading down to the ocean, with the right woman in my arms, a glass of Bordeaux beside me and a Puccini opera on the stereo system, knowing that I’ve earned the pleasure I feel, I’m so glad I didn’t let someone else decide what’s best for me.”

— Harry Browne

90. “Everyone begins life as a free person. But as time passes, most people accept the prearranged programs and never stop to realize the freedom they possess. They accept standards and situations that are unsuitable to them.”

— Harry Browne

91. “If your purpose is to make someone happy, you’re more apt to succeed if you make yourself the object. You’ll never know another person more than a fraction as well as you can know yourself.”

— Harry Browne

92. “Hitler couldn’t have conquered Europe without the help provided by the governments of the occupied nations.”

— Harry Browne

93. “The negative side of marriage remains long after the positive goals have been discarded.”

— Harry Browne