Thomas Sowell Quotes
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There are only two economists in Congress and hundreds of lawyers. Does that explain why the government is in such a mess?
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The grand delusion of contemporary liberals is that they have both the right and the ability to move their fellow creatures around like blocks of wood - and that the end results will be no different than if people had voluntarily chosen the same action
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There is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their deeds?
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Women can say anything they want to men, or blacks to whites, with impunity. But strong words in the other direction can bring down on students the wrath of the campus thought police - as well as punishments that can extend to suspension or expulsion.
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The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.
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The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.
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The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.
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The law of diminishing returns means that even the most beneficial prinicple will become harmful if carried far enough.
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Rhetoric is no substitute for reality.
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Someone once said that taxes are the price we pay for civilization. That may have been true when he said it, but today taxes are mostly the price we pay so that politicians can play Santa Claus and get reelected.
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The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.
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...Politics is not about facts. It is about what politicians can get people to believe.
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In politics, the truth is strictly optional and that also seems to be true in parts of the media.
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Organizational progress parallels that in science and technology, permitting ultimate simplicity through intermediate complexity.
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The economic disasters of socialism and communism come from assuming a blanket superiority of those who want to run a whole economy.
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People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not have one-tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together. In this situation, for the intelligentsia to impose their notions on ordinary people is essentially to impose ignorance on knowledge.
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Having spent years ruining the housing markets with their interference, leading to a housing meltdown that has taken the whole economy down with it, politicians have now moved on into micro-managing automobile companies and medical care. They are not going to stop unless they get stopped. And that is not going to happen until the voters recognize the fact that political rhetoric is no substitute for competence.
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Politics is largely the process of taking credit and putting the blame on others - regardless of what the facts may be.
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I hate to make predictions, but I think the economy is going to be permanently changed for the worse. I think our foreign policy is going to lead to changes that will be definitely for the worse, particularly if we drift into a nuclear Iran, which I gather that's what the administration is doing.
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The political left has been weak on protecting society from criminals for more than two centuries.
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If you want to get each individual's honest opinion, you don't want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.
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Creating whole departments of ethnic, gender, and other 'studies' was part of the price of academic peace. All too often, these 'studies' are about propaganda rather than serious education.
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Nobody would put as little thought and effort into buying an automobile as they put into deciding who to elect as President of the United States.
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Young people in general - and young women in particular - need to understand that they cannot retrieve in their forties the opportunities they threw away in their twenties.