How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World Quotes

“And when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he’s upset only because you aren’t doing what he selfishly wants you to do.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Never focus your attention on anyone’s weaknesses — his temper, sloppiness, poor logic, dishonesty, whatever. Recognize these shortcomings, take them into consideration, but don’t waste your time complaining about them. Instead, pay attention to what your actions should be in order to deal with him.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“To be self-reliant is to recognize that no one else is as concerned about your future as you are and that no one knows as much about you as you do.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“To be nobody but yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you somebody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. — e.e. cummings”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“The answer is simple: You are you, the person who will live with the consequences of what you do. No one else can be responsible, because no one else will experience the consequences of your actions as you will.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“I’ve concentrated upon the things I control, and used that control to remove the restrictions and complications from my life.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“An individual might say, “I don’t want to change anyone.” And yet, he might still spend a great deal of his time trying to get others to agree with his views, or trying to prevent someone from doing something he thinks will be bad for him, or trying to change people by participating in a movement over a burning issue, or voting to prevent others from doing what they want to do. In all these ways, he’s trying to change others — to make them do other than what their natures lead them to do.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“As I lie on my couch by the fireplace, looking out from my hillside home at the snow leading down to the ocean, with the right woman in my arms, a glass of Bordeaux beside me and a Puccini opera on the stereo system, knowing that I’ve earned the pleasure I feel, I’m so glad I didn’t let someone else decide what’s best for me.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“There’s no final resting place — short of death — where you can stop having to earn what you want.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Things will get better only when you make the changes that are necessary to make them better.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Everyone begins life as a free person. But as time passes, most people accept the prearranged programs and never stop to realize the freedom they possess. They accept standards and situations that are unsuitable to them.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“I’m free and happy because I accepted myself as I am and found a life that suits me”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“He doesn’t sacrifice himself for others, nor does he expect others to be sacrificed for him. He takes the third alternative —  he  finds  relationships  that  are  mutually beneficial so that no sacrifice is required.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Absolutely every government regulation is enforced by violence. If you’ve never seen that violence, it’s because you’ve been careful, obedient, or lucky.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“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”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“The larger the  government,  the  less  efficient  and  productive  is  the  economy.  Slaves  don’t produce with the enthusiasm, incentive, and imagination that free people do. Bureaucratic programs just don’t work as intended.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“people who always thought, “It’s different here.” They failed to realize that no government obeys laws. It will change, overrule, ignore, or defy them whenever they get in its way. To count on the law to protect you is a grave mistake.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“If your purpose is to make someone happy, you’re more apt to succeed if you make yourself the object. You’ll never know another person more than a fraction as well as you can know yourself.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“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?”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“So while the totalitarian state may include a TV camera in every room, I doubt that the camera will work.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“The negative side of marriage remains long after the positive goals have been discarded.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“A phony compliment usually isn’t meant to make an individual feel better about himself; it’s meant to make him feel better about the person doing the complimenting.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“3. Don’t attempt to perpetuate a relationship by contract. Change is inevitable.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“But the objective of freedom is quite realistic; only the methods have been wrong. Don’t be awed by the government. Don’t confront it directly. Don’t organize.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Obviously the answer to the threat of communism (or any other enemy) is not a stronger government to defend us but just the opposite. We’d be far safer if there were no government to conquer.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Hitler couldn’t have conquered Europe without the help provided by the governments of the occupied nations.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“As Frederic Bastiat put it, “The State is the great fictitious entity by which everyone expects to live at the expense of everyone else.”[8]”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“You can’t control the natures of other people, but you can control how you’ll deal with them. And you can also control the extent and manner in which you’ll be involved with them.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“One person devotes his life to helping the poor. Another one lies and steals. Still another person tries to create better products and services for which he hopes to be paid handsomely. One woman devotes herself to her husband and children. Another seeks a career as a singer. In every case, the basic motivation has been the same. Each person is doing what he believes will bring him happiness. What varies between them is the means each has chosen to gain his happiness.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“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.”
― Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty