Harry Browne

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

“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.”

“Libertarians understand a very simple fact of life: Government doesn't work. It can't deliver the mail on time, it doesn't keep our cities safe, it doesn't educate our children properly.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“America rules the world - by force.”

“The communitarians may say you've been enjoying too much individual freedom, and that you must give up some of that for the benefit of the community. But they really mean that they want more power over your life - to force you to subsidize, obey and conform to their choices.”

“Voluntary association produces the free market - where each person can choose among a multitude of possibilities.”

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

“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.”

“When people do things for you, it's because they want to - because you, in some way, give them something meaningful that makes them want to please you, not because anyone owes you anything.”

“If younger people see older people who haven't planned ahead and have to rely on charity, the young will be more likely to provide for the future. Today when someone plans poorly, the only consequence people see is a demand for more government.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”