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When someone asks for a government program, he is saying in effect, 'Tell the police to use their guns to get me what I want.'

— Harry Browne Why Government Doesn't Work (1995)

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More quotes by Harry Browne

Freedom is more often lost by false assumptions than by the power of one's enemies.

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (1973)

We should never define Libertarian positions in terms coined by liberals or conservatives — nor as some variant of their positions.

Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it.

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (1973)

If an individual is required to give up his own happiness for society, of what value is society to him?

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (1973)

Taking risks is an inherent part of life; it's only dangerous when you act as though you're not taking a risk.

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (1973)

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Harry Browne (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.