Harry Browne Quotes

What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government shall do everything and the idea that government shall do nothing.

I think the irony ... is that I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government.

I believe you can divide the people in to two basic groups, those who believe government is a necessary good and those who believe it is a necessary evil, those who want government to take care of them, those who want government to leave them alone.

I'm a Democrat, and there are an important group of things only the government can do. But let us be clear that for most of the world, what they most need is less government.

Conservatives want smaller government. They want to focus on market-based solutions wherever one can. They want to have as little regulation as possible. But in general, they recognize that government must play an important role for a society to operate.

The central issue of our time - of all times - is the size, power and scope of government.

Government has a legitimate sphere of operation. The problem arises when that sphere continually expands, encompassing areas where government lacks legitimacy.

Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from birth what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government to do good.

Can government really be active and, at the same time, limited? History suggests otherwise.

I would prefer the [USA] government to be the policeman and not the businessman.

A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot - because the first leads inevitably to the second.

My quarrel is not with the legitimate role of government but with the unlimited role of government.

Government has ceased to mean upholding and reinforcing the traditional rights and morals of the governed; it now means compulsion in the service of social engineering.

Conservatives believe government's principal functions are the preservation of freedom and removal of restraints on the individual. Liberalism's ascent in the first two-thirds of this century reflected the new belief that government should also confer capacities on individuals. Liberalism's decline in the final third of this century has reflected doubts about whether government can be good at that, or whether government that is good at that is good for the nation's character.

Governments must conform to the nature of the men governed.

It should not be the government running the economy.

I'm not a complete libertarian. There is a proper role in some areas of the government to have rules and regulations - I'm not an anarchist.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

Mr. Obama is proud of his belief that government knows best. When he told the world that individuals were not totally responsible for their personal success, that government has a major role in it, many Americans were taken aback. But Barack Obama sincerely believes that.

Government is to point you in the right direction, and not to do everything for you.

The government doesn't have to solve everyone's problem here.

We need a Federal government that does what the government needs to do and stops doing what the government ought not to be doing.

While many of Mr. Obama's ideas warrant skepticism, conservative opposition to any expanded role for government is a mistake.

The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.

The conservative idea is not that government has no role. You might have argued that in the thirties when conservatives opposed the New Deal.