Quotes from Harry Browne

If governments didn't coercively monopolize the market for protection, there'd undoubtedly be more forms of protection offered on a voluntary basis to those who feel threatened by organized crime.

For the thief and the humanitarian each have the same motive — to do what he believes will make him feel good. In fact, we can't avoid a very significant conclusion: Everyone is selfish.

You'll know that whatever happens isn't your problem because you no longer have the responsibility to see that others do what they should.

If there were no shortage of human resources in this world, consumers could buy everything and have everything they wanted. Then there would be no point in wondering how to succeed.

All you have to do is to make it your business to find out what people want ~ instead of assuming it, instead of telling them. The one rule that sums up the job to be done ~ the one formula that is fully in harmony with the real world ~ the secret of success is: Find out what people want and help them get it!

3. Don't attempt to perpetuate a relationship by contract. Change is inevitable.

Those who wish that success would fall into their laps will wish forever. But those who look at the world as it is, who recognize that the consumer is king, who take the trouble to find out what the consumer wants ~ these men make fortunes. People will always reward them ~ because people will not want to be without their services.

Think about it. Every action committed by any human being has one common objective – to bring about happiness for the individual himself. That is the one thing we can say for certain about human action – it is aimed at happiness. Whether or not it succeeds is something else again

If you give a man a gift because you hope he will award a particular contract to you, you are obviously demonstrating a lack of confidence in your ability to make your normal services profitable to him. And if you're doing it because your competitors are, then you're suggesting that the prospect really isn't a very ideal customer.

Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close proximity to someone who has ceased to communicate. — Germaine Greer

If a relationship is structured so that each person has his own area of responsibility over which he has complete control, most of the typical headaches of business can be eliminated.

If the dollars you lose in taxes are important to you, then what about the dollars you may be spending to perpetuate boxes you could get out of?

It's just as unrealistic to merge your property as it is to try to merge your minds. And  property  is  very  important.  The  control  of  your  own  property  is  the  most tangible expression of your freedom.

If I could give you just one thing, I'd want it to be a simple truth that took me many years to learn. If you learn it now, it may enrich your life in hundreds of ways. And it may prevent you from facing many problems that have hurt people who have never learned it. The truth is simply this: No one owes you anything.

Freedom from exploitation is perhaps the easiest freedom to get. All you have to do is to stop participating in any relationship — of any kind — that doesn't suit you. It

Love is too valuable to allow it to be killed by marriage, social pressures, or any other restriction.

A big philosophical breakthrough for me was the realization that my own freedom was not only possible, but far more important than the establishment of a free society.

you're wrong, you will suffer for it. If you're right, you will find happiness. You have to be the one to decide. "Who are you to know?" It's your future at stake. You have to know. Freedom comes only from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue. — David Seabury

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.

The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.

Government programs didn't arise because the people demanded them or because the free market was unable to provide needed services. They arose because the politicians found them to be a convenient way to buy votes with other people's money, a convenient way to enlarge their own power, a convenient way to reward their political cronies, and a convenient way to keep people dependent on government.

You don't have to buy from anyone. You don't have to work at any particular job. You don't have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose.

When you know you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.

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.