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Thomas Sowell
91 quotes
“What the welfare system and other kinds of governmental programs are doing is paying people to fail. In so far as they fail, they receive the money; in so far as they succeed, even to a moderate extent, the money is taken away.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During a discussion in Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose" television series in 1980.
“Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Thomas Sowell Reader, New York: NY, Basic Books (2011) p. 144, Forbes magazine, "The survival of the left" (Sept. 8, 1997)
“Too many Republicans treat English as a second language, with Beltway lingo being their native tongue.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Syndicated column, retrieved from The Tuscaloosa News, December 13, 1996.
“The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Survival of the Left", Forbes (Sep 8, 1997)
“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 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago and a racist today.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Creators Syndicate November 28, 1998.
“Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ideas, as the raw material from which knowledge is produced, exist in superabundance, but that makes the production of knowledge more difficult rather than easier.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Civilization is an enormous device for economizing on knowledge.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge may be enjoyed as a speculative diversion, but it is needed for decision making.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While decisions are constrained by the kinds of organizations and the kinds of knowledge involved, the Impetus for decisions comes from the internal preferences and external incentives facing those who actually make the decisions.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Key indicators require some specified time span during which they are to be tabulated for purposes of reward or penalty. The time span can vary enormously according to the process and the indicator.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before attempting to determine the effect of institutions, it is necessary to consider the inherent circumstances, constraints, and impelling forces at work in the environment within which the institutional mechanisms function.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cavemen had the same natural resources at their disposal as we have today, and the difference between their standard of living and ours is a difference between the knowledge they could bring to bear on those resources and the knowledge used today.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We will do almost anything for our visions, except think about them. The purpose of this book is to think about them.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Facts do not "speak for themselves." They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theory or visions are mere isolated curiosities.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the grand fallacies of our time is that something beneficial should be subsidized.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The case for the political left looks more plausible on the surface but is harder to keep believing in as you become more experienced.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Understanding the limitations of human beings is the beginning of wisdom.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The key feature of Communist propaganda has been the depiction of people who are more productive as mere exploiters of others.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In short, it is not merely that Johnny can't read, or even that Johnny can't think. Johnny doesn't know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling in many public schools. [emphasis in the original]”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area - crime, education, housing, race relations - the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy plus rhetoric equals 'social justice'.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011), p.399, Basic Books
“People will forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right – especially if events prove you right while proving them wrong.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“History shows that degeneracy can be turned around because it has been done in the past. But the real question today is: Will we turn it around-or is what we are doing likely to make matters worse?”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as any moron can destroy a priceless Ming vase, so the shallow and ill-educated people who run our schools can undermine and destroy from within a great civilization that took centuries of dedicated effort to create and maintain. (27 December 2002)”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Day the Delusions Died" 22 October 2023 (quoting Thomas Sowell)
Also quoted by: Konstantin Kisin
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who believe that "basic necessities" should belong to people as a matter of right ignore the implication -- that people are to work only for amenities, frivolities, and ego. Will that mean more work or less work? And if less, where are all those "basic necessities" coming from that the government is supposed to hand out?”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many of the dangerous things that drivers do are not likely to save them even 10 seconds. When you bet your life against 10 seconds, that is giving bigger odds than you are ever likely to get in Las Vegas.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most problems do not get solved. They get superseded by other concerns.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People who talk incessantly about "change" are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maturity is not a matter of age. You have matured when you are no longer concerned with showing how clever you are, and give your full attention to getting the job done right. Many never reach that stage, no matter how old they get.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the most ridiculous defenses of foreign aid is that it is a very small part of our national income. If the average American set fire to a five-dollar bill, it would be an even smaller percentage of his annual income. But everyone would consider him foolish for doing it.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Letters from teachers continue to confirm the incompetence which they deny. A teacher in Montana says that my criticisms of teachers are "nieve." No, that wasn't a typographical error. He spelled it that way twice.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I could offer one piece of advice to young people thinking about their future, it would be this: Don't preconceive. Find out what the opportunities are.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some of the people on death row today might not be there if the courts had not been so lenient on them when they were first offenders.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you don't believe in the innate unreasonableness of human beings, just try raising children.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time was when people used to brag about how old they were -- and I am old enough to remember it.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. Know-it-alls in the school system do not lose one dime or one hour's sleep if their bright ideas turn out to be all wrong, or even disastrous, for the child.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wake up, Parents, Jewish World Review, 18 August 2000.
“The greatness of a free-market economy is that it does not depend upon the wisdom of those who happen to be on top at the moment.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rise and fall of a business,” Monterey Herald, December 30, 2000
“People who think that they are being "exploited" should ask themselves whether they would be missed if they left, or whether people would say: "Good riddance"?”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random thoughts, Jewish World Review, April 29, 2002
“To the economically illiterate, if some company makes a million dollars in profit, this means that their products cost a million dollars more than they would have cost without profits. It never occurs to such people that these products might cost several million dollars more to produce if they were produced by enterprises operating without the incentives to be efficient created by the prospect of profits.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , South Florida Sun Sentinel, December 26, 2003
“Intellectuals may like to think of themselves as people who "speak truth to power" but too often they are people who speak lies to gain power.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Feb 25, 2004
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Feb 26, 2004
“Walter Williams figured out some years ago that the amount of money needed to move the poor out of poverty would be trivial compared to the amount of money that's spent on these damn programs that are supposed to help the poor but usually don't. But the poor are being used as human shields in the political battle. You put the poor up in front of you as you march across the battlefield and enemy troops won't fire, so you can expand your power, and raise taxes, and so forth.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Live" with Thomas Sowell, The American Enterprise, September 2004.