Thomas Sowell Quotes
-
It is amazing how many people think they are doing blacks a favor by exempting them from standards that others are expected to meet.
-
People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.
-
Although much of the media have their antennae out to pick up anything that might be construed as racism against blacks, they resolutely ignore even the most blatant racism by blacks against others.
-
The simplest and most psychologically satisfying explanation of any observed phenomenon is that it happened that way because someone wanted it to happen that way.
-
The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.
-
It is amazing how many people seem to think that the government exists to turn their prejudices into law.
-
Civil rights used to be about treating everyone the same. But today some people are so used to special treatment that equal treatment is considered to be discrimination.
-
Asking liberals where wages and prices come from is like asking six-year-olds where babies come from.
-
You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible.
-
When government takes away options, it is bound to make some people worse off, even with intrinsicallly good intentions behind that government intervention.
-
Senator John McCain could never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama can cause me to vote for McCain.
-
Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God.
-
If politicians were serious about day care for children, instead of just sloganizing about it, nothing they could do would improve the quality of child care more than by lifting the heavy burden of taxation that forces so many families to have both parents working.
-
Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy. It's purpose is to discern the consequences of various ways of allocating resources which have alternative uses. It has nothing to say about philosophy or values, anymore than it has to say about music or literature.
-
Those who wrote the Constitution clearly understood that power is dangerous and needs to be limited by being separated - separated not only into the three branches of the national government but also separated as between the whole national government, on the one hand, and the states and the people on the other.
-
People who believe in evolution in biology often believe in creationism in government. In other words, they believe that the universe and all the creatures in it could have evolved spontaneously, but that the economy is too complicated to operate without being directed by politicians.
-
It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else's opinion.
-
We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did.
-
The reason so many problems do not get solved in Washington is that solving those problems is not the No. 1 priority: Re-election is.
-
All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.
-
In the long run, the greatest weapon of mass destruction is stupidity.
-
The great escape of our times is escape from personal responsibility for the consequences of one's own behavior.
-
If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.
-
The poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits ever since 1994. You would never learn that from most of the media. Similarly you look at those blacks that have gone on to college or finished college, the incarceration rate is some tiny fraction of what it is among those blacks who have dropped out of high school. So it’s not being black; it’s a way of life. Unfortunately, the way of life is being celebrated not only in rap music, but among the intelligentsia, is a way of life that leads to a lot of very big problems for most people.