Thomas Sowell Quotes
-
Our economic problems worry me much less than our political solutions, which have a far worse track record.
-
The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.
-
One of the beauties of an economy coordinated by price movements is that nobody has to understand it in order for it to work.
-
Too much of what is called 'education' is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.
-
One of the big differences between Democrats and Republicans is that we at least know what the Democrats stand for, whether we agree with it or not. But, for Republicans, we have to guess
-
The law of diminishing returns means that even the most beneficial prinicple will become harmful if carried far enough.
-
The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers.
-
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.
-
There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.
-
Sometimes it seems as if I have spent the first half of my life refusing to let white people define me and the second half refusing to let black people define me.
-
To say the Constitution is living is to say that it's dead.
-
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.
-
The political left has been weak on protecting society from criminals for more than two centuries.
-
If we become a people who are willing to give up our money and our freedom in exchange for rhetoric and promises, then nothing can save us.
-
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.
-
Compassion is the use of public funds to buy votes
-
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.
-
There are only two economists in Congress and hundreds of lawyers. Does that explain why the government is in such a mess?
-
Clearly, only very unequal intellectual and moral standing could justify having equality imposed, whether the people want it or not, as Dworkin suggests, and only very unequal power would make it possible.
-
A lot of what is called 'public service' consists of making hoops for other people to jump through. It is a great career for those who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what 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.
-
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.
-
Much of the self-righteous nonsense that abounds on so many subjects cannot stand up to three questions: (1) Compared to what? (2) At what cost? and (3) What are the hard facts?.
-
Benedict Arnold was a war hero, wounded in battle--before he turned against his country. Hitler was likewise a decorated and wounded veteran of the First World War. Being a war hero is not a lifetime...exemption...from responsibility for what you do thereafter.