Harry Browne
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.Collection: Agency
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.Collection: Government
Whatever the issue, let freedom offer us a hundred choices, instead of having government force one answer on everyone.Collection: Government
Disarmed citizens encourage crime and violence. Armed citizens encourage criminals to find a safer line of work.Collection: Violence
It's wrong for someone to confiscate your money, give it to someone else, and call that "compassion."Collection: Compassion
In my experience, people who are truly compassionate rarely use the word "compassion." Those who do talk compassion generally intend to be compassionate with your money, not their own. It's wrong for someone to confiscate your money, give it to someone else, and call that 'compassion'.Collection: Compassion
Conservatives say the government can't end poverty by force, but they believe it can use force to make people moral. Liberals say government can't make people be moral, but they believe it can end poverty. Neither group attempts to explain why government is so clumsy and destructive in one area but a paragon of efficiency and benevolence in the other.Collection: Believe
Most politicians believe in just one thing - winning elections. They'll say anything to get in office and stay there.Collection: Believe
No one ever died from smoking marijuana, but millions of people have died by believing politicians.Collection: Believe
Give politicians power and it certainly will be abused eventually - if not by today's politicians, then by their successors.Collection: Giving
The coercive power of government is always a beacon to those who want to dominate others -- summoning the worst dregs of society to Washington to use that power to impose their will upon others.Collection: Government
The seeds of today's runaway government were planted when it was decided that government should help those who can't help themselves. From that modest, compassionate beginning to today's out-of-control mega-state, there's a straight, unbroken line. Once the door was open, once it was settled that the government should help some people at the expense of others, there was no stopping it.Collection: Government
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.Collection: Government
We may not always recognize it, but government plays a bigger role in our lives than any other single person or institution. We spend nearly half of our lives working to pay for it. Children spend more time in government schools than they do with their parents. Birth, death, marriage, every area of our lives feels the influence of government.Collection: Children
Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats.Collection: Liberty
The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.Collection: Government
Get your money out of the country before your country gets your money out of youCollection: Country
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.Collection: Fighting
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 will free you from the income tax.Collection: Running
Democratic politicians want to solve the crisis of poor education by taking more of your money and using it to reduce classroom sizes in the government schools. Republican politicians want to solve the crisis by taking more of your money to provide vouchers to a handful of the poorest students in each area, paying for a part of the tuition expense at private schools. But before long this 'reform' would make those private schools indistinguishable from the government schools ... Vouchers are an excellent way for the government to increase control over private schools.Collection: School
Social Security is inherently unsound for the simple reason that it's a political program run by politicians for political purposes...Social Security operates on a very simple principle: the politicians take your money from you and squander it.Collection: Running
I have no temptation to vote, to campaign, to try and stop a candidate who promises new follies.Collection: Temptation
If the Fed had a war on abortion like its war on poverty or war on drugs, within five years men would be having abortions!Collection: War
Can you think of a single area of government in which George Bush hasn't already made things worse than Bill Clinton did?Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Government
When paper money systems begin to crack at the seams, the run to gold could be explosive.Collection: Running
Once we realize that government doesn't work, we will stop dreaming that this or that social problem can be solved by passing a law - or by creating a new government program - or by electing someone who will make Washington more efficient or cost-conscious.Collection: Dream
Everyone will experience the consequences of his own acts. If his acts are right, he'll get good consequences; if they're not, he'll suffer for it.Collection: Inspirational
Find out what people want and help them get it.Collection: People
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.Collection: Government
The problem with politics isn't the money; it's the power.Collection: Political
The best kept secret in the investing world: Almost nothing turns out as expected.Collection: Best Kept Secrets
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.Collection: Freedom
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.Collection: Government
Government doesn't work. That's the first lesson we must learn if we want to improve society.Collection: Government
There's nothing shameful in acknowledging that you don't have the answers to every question about life. Just accept the fact that you know only a fraction of what's going on in the world. You don't have to attach explanations in terms of a special revelation of God's will, a glimpse at the supernatural, evidence of a conspiracy, or anything else.Collection: Wisdom
The first step in freeing yourself from social restrictions is the realization that there is no such thing as a safe code of conduct - one that would earn everyone's approval. Your actions can always be condemned by someone - for being too bold or too apathetic, for being too conformist or too nonconformist, for being too liberal or too conservative. So it's necessary to decide whose approval is important to you.Collection: Important
You have only one life, and no one else will live it for you. Shouldn't you take the time right now to figure out what that life is all about?Collection: Life
The marketplace is a wondrous institution. It harnesses the self-interest of each of us and puts it to work for the benefit of all. And it does so without intruding upon our desires, our privacy, or our freedom. It is regulation by reality, not by coercion.Collection: Reality
A secure individual...knows that the responsibility for anything concerning his life remains with himself-and he accepts that responsibility.Collection: Responsibility
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.Collection: Gun
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.Collection: Giving Up
When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.Collection: World
Government doesn't work. You work, I work, Federal Express works, Microsoft works, the Salvation Army works, Alcoholics Anonymous works, but government doesn't.Collection: Army
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.Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Political
Insurance is meant for extraordinary circumstances. You don't use car insurance to pay for oil changes or gasoline; you have it as protection in case you have a terrible accident or your car is stolen. You don't use homeowners' insurance to pay your electricity and water bills; you have it as protection in case a fire or other catastrophic event produces a large expense. Obviously, any insurance policy that promises to cover every small, ordinary expense is going to be much more expensive than one that covers only extraordinary expenses.Collection: Fire
Not only can no one predict the future, we don't understand the present - and there isn't even any certainty about the past.Collection: Past
The best thing we can do for family values is to repeal the income tax. Then families will have the resources they need to implement their own values - and not those of the politicians. With the income tax gone, families will no longer be forced to have two breadwinners by necessity. Children will be raised better, family values will predominate, and crime will diminish. If your local school indoctrinates your child with values that are alien to you, you'll have the money to buy a private education.Collection: Children