Harry Browne > Quotes

“Harry’s letter to his daughter:

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.

Significance

How could such a simple statement be important? It may not seem so, but understanding it can bless your entire life.

No one owes you anything.

It means that no one else is living for you, my child. Because no one is you. Each person is living for himself; his own happiness is all he can ever personally feel.

When you realize that no one owes you happiness or anything else, you’ll be freed from expecting what isn’t likely to be.

It means no one has to love you. If someone loves you, it’s because there’s something special about you that gives him happiness. Find out what that something special is and try to make it stronger in you, so that you’ll be loved even more.

When people do things for you, it’s because they want to — because you, in some way, give them something meaningful that makes them want to please you, not because anyone owes you anything.

No one has to like you. If your friends want to be with you, it’s not out of duty. Find out what makes others happy so they’ll want to be near you.

No one has to respect you. Some people may even be unkind to you. But once you realize that people don’t have to be good to you, and may not be good to you, you’ll learn to avoid those who would harm you. For you don’t owe them anything either.

Living your Life

No one owes you anything.

You owe it to yourself to be the best person possible. Because if you are, others will want to be with you, want to provide you with the things you want in exchange for what you’re giving to them.

Some people will choose not to be with you for reasons that have nothing to do with you. When that happens, look elsewhere for the relationships you want. Don’t make someone else’s problem your problem.

Once you learn that you must earn the love and respect of others, you’ll never expect the impossible and you won’t be disappointed. Others don’t have to share their property with you, nor their feelings or thoughts.

If they do, it’s because you’ve earned these things. And you have every reason to be proud of the love you receive, your friends’ respect, the property you’ve earned. But don’t ever take them for granted. If you do, you could lose them. They’re not yours by right; you must always earn them.

My Experience

A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything. For so long as I’d thought there were things I was entitled to, I’d been wearing myself out —physically and emotionally — trying to collect them.

No one owes me moral conduct, respect, friendship, love, courtesy, or intelligence. And once I recognized that, all my relationships became far more satisfying. I’ve focused on being with people who want to do the things I want them to do.

That understanding has served me well with friends, business associates, lovers, sales prospects, and strangers. It constantly reminds me that I can get what I want only if I can enter the other person’s world. I must try to understand how he thinks, what he believes to be important, what he wants. Only then can I appeal to someone in ways that will bring me what I want.

And only then can I tell whether I really want to be involved with someone. And I can save the important relationships for th”
― Harry Browne

“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.”
― Harry Browne

“The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.”
― Harry Browne

“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.”
― Harry Browne

“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.”
― Harry Browne

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

“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

“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.”
― Harry Browne

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Winning an argument is of no value. What you want is to win a convert. And people who lose arguments are more likely to beef up their current convictions instead of converting to your way of thinking.”
― Harry Browne, Liberty A to Z: 872 Libertarian Soundbites You Can Use Right Now!

“So when you approach any individual, make sure you realize that he will do what he wants to do. Don’t laugh at his choices; investigate them to better understand what he’s trying to accomplish.
If you wish to trade, you will have to offer the person something he wants more than what he has already. It’s his resources you are seeking. He will control their use. You will have to be in tune with his desires or there will be no exchange.
The consumer is the object of the whole process. And he chooses in terms that are meaningful to him (not to you). You will succeed only as you find ways to satisfy him.”
― Harry Browne, The Secret of Selling Anything

“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

“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

“The first step in trying to get along with other people is to realize that each is doing what he wants to do. Examine his actions, uncover the motives for his acts, find out why he wants to do as he does. And, as we’ll see further along, this will give you the opportunity to earn his respect and cooperation to an extent that others can never obtain.”
― Harry Browne, The Secret of Selling Anything

“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

“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

“It is not how long you work at some task that determines what you’ll receive for it in exchange. It is the value someone else places upon the product or service that determines what it is worth in exchange.”
― Harry Browne, The Secret of Selling Anything

“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

“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

“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

“your balance sheet is an indication of how much you have served others ~ in terms of their standards, their values, their desires. Don’t ever forget that happiness is relative. Your idea of what’s good for someone else may not be shared in the slightest by that someone.
Understand, too, that I am not saying you ought to be considerate of others or that it is ethical to make people happy. It is a simple fact of life that if you do not make people happy, they aren’t going to do business with you ~ on any basis.”
― Harry Browne, The Secret of Selling Anything