Harry Browne Quotes About Liberty
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The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice.
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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.
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For those looking for security, be forewarned that there's nothing more insecure than a political promise.
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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.
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It's wrong for someone to confiscate your money, give it to someone else, and call that "compassion."
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The problem is big government. If whoever controls government can impose his way upon you, you have to fight constantly to prevent the control from being harmful. With small, limited government, it doesn't much matter who controls it, because it can't do you much harm.
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For most of our history, Americans enjoyed both liberty and security from foreign threats.
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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.
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A welfare state is frightened of every poor person who tries to get in and every rich person who tries to get out.
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Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats.
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In almost all matters, the real question should be: why are we letting government handle this?
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Immigrants used to come to America seeking freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from government. Now they come looking for free health care, free education, and a free lunch.
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Whatever the issue, let freedom offer us a hundred choices, instead of having government force one answer on everyone.
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The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.
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The American heritage was one of individual liberty, personal responsibility and freedom from government ... Unfortunately ... that heritage has been lost. Americans no longer have the freedom to direct their own lives ... Today, it is the government that is free - free to do whatever it wants. There is no subject, no issue, no matter ... that is not subject to legislation.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution.
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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.
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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".
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Can you think of a single area of government in which George Bush hasn't already made things worse than Bill Clinton did?
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...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.
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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.
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A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot - because the first leads inevitably to the second.
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Not only can no one predict the future, we don't understand the present - and there isn't even any certainty about the past.
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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.
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