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Thomas Sowell

91 quotes

“I'm always embarrassed when people say that I'm courageous. Soldiers are courageous. Policemen are courageous. Firemen are courageous. I just have a thick hide and disregard what silly people say.”
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.
“Before the Iraq war I was quite disturbed by some of the neoconservatives, who were saying things like, "What is the point of being a superpower if you can't do such-and-such, take on these responsibilities?" The point of being a superpower is that people will leave you alone.”
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.
“It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Townhall, December 2004.
“Nothing could be more jolting and discordant with the vision of today's intellectuals than the fact that it was businessmen, devout religious leaders and Western imperialists who together destroyed slavery around the world. And if it doesn't fit their vision, it is the same to them as if it never happened.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ending Slavery, 8 February 2005.
“Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. Some confuse that feeling with idealism.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Oct. 17, 2005
“Some of the most vocal critics of the way things are being done are people who have done nothing themselves, and whose only contributions to society are their complaints and moral exhibitionism.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Oct. 17, 2005
“When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Don’t Get Weak, National Review, May 1, 2007.
“Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, May 01, 2007
“Too often what are called "educated" people are simply people who have been sheltered from reality for years in ivy-covered buildings. Those whose whole careers have been spent in ivy-covered buildings, insulated by tenure, can remain adolescents on into their golden retirement years.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, May 01, 2007
“One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans-- anything except reason.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Sep 03, 2007
“Although I am ready to defend what I have said, many people expect me to defend what others have attributed to me.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Sep 03, 2007
“'Global warming' is just the latest in a long line of hysterical crusades to which we seem to be increasingly susceptible.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: National Review, March 15, 2007.
“In a world where young blacks, especially, are bombarded with claims that they are being unfairly targeted by police, and where a general attitude of belligerence is being promoted literally in word and song, it is hard not to wonder whether some people's responses to policemen do not have something to do with the policemen's responses to them. Neither the police nor people in any other occupation always do what is right but automatic belligerence is not the answer.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Driving While Black" (31 October 2007), Jewish World Review.
“Right after liberal Democrats, the most dangerous politicians are country club Republicans.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, 26 August 2008.
“Republicans won big, running as Republicans, in 2004. But once they took control of Congress, they started acting like Democrats and lost big. There is a lesson in that somewhere but whether Republicans will learn it is another story entirely.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, 26 August 2008.
“When we hear about rent control or gun control, we may think about rent or guns but the word that really matters is 'control.' That is what the political left is all about, as you can see by the incessant creation of new restrictions in places where they are strongly entrenched in power, such as San Francisco or New York.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, 26 August 2008.
“To find anything comparable to crowds' euphoric reactions to Obama, you would have to go back to old newsreels of German crowds in the 1930s, with their adulation of their fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. With hindsight, we can look back on those people with pity, knowing now how many of them would be led to their deaths by the man they idolized.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Idols of Crowds, Sep 16, 2008.
“Anyone who has actually had to take responsibility for consequences by running any kind of enterprise — whether economic or academic, or even just managing a sports team — is likely at some point to be chastened by either the setbacks brought on by his own mistakes or by seeing his successes followed by negative consequences that he never anticipated.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Real Clear Politics Nov 2008
“Racism has never done this country any good, and it needs to be fought against, not put under new management for different groups.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Out of Context", Jewish World Review, 2 June 2009.
“The average black student at MIT is in the bottom 10% of MIT students in math. But he is in the top 90% of all American students in math. Something like one fourth of all the black students going to MIT do not graduate. You're talking about a pool of people whom you are artificially turning into failures by mismatching them with the school.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thomas Sowell (on affirmative action), Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World (at 27m46s), 25 January 2021.
“In its pursuit of justice for a segment of society, in disregard of the consequences for society as a whole, what is called 'social justice' might more accurately be called anti-social justice, since what consistently gets ignored or dismissed are precisely the costs to society. Such a conception of justice seeks to correct, not only biased or discriminatory acts by individuals or by social institutions, but unmerited disadvantages in general, from whatever source they may arise.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It may be expecting too much to expect most intellectuals to have common sense, when their whole life is based on their being uncommon -- that is, saying things that are different from what everyone else is saying. There is only so much genuine originality in anyone. After that, being uncommon means indulging in pointless eccentricities or clever attempts to mock or shock.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer "universal health care.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Failure is a big part of a free market's success. People fail to live up to their potential, or to carry out all their good intentions, in all kinds of economic and political systems. Capitalism makes them pay a price for their failures, while socialism, feudalism, fascism and other systems enable personal failures, especially by those at the top, to be ignored and the inevitable price to be paid by others in lower standards of living than they could have had with the existing resources and technology. p. 24”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peter Robinson: Our intellectual-in-chief, Barack Obama, got his BA from Columbia, his JD from Harvard, he taught for a number of years at the University of Chicago Law School. May I suppose that Tom Sowell is duly impressed? Thomas Sowell: [laughing] Oh, yeah! You might say the road to hell is paved with Ivy League degrees!”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Uncommon Knowledge - Thomas Sowell on the second edition of Intellectuals and Society (37:03), May 8, 2012
“The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Big Lies in Politics, 22 May 2012.
“Both history and contemporary data show that countries prosper more when there are stable and dependable rules, under which people can make investments without having to fear unpredictable new government interventions before these investments can pay off.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Economic 'Plan'?" September 11, 2012.
“What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people—like themselves—need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Socialist or Fascist?", Jewish World Review (June 12, 2012)
“If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wimps Versus Barbarians, May 21, 2013
“In a country with more than 300 million people, it is remarkable how obsessed the media have become with just one—Donald Trump. What is even more remarkable is that, after seven years of repeated disasters, both domestically and internationally, under a glib egomaniac in the White House, so many potential voters are turning to another glib egomaniac to be his successor.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conservatives Against Trump" (21 January 2016), National Review
“What was special about America was not that it had slavery, which existed all over the world, but that Americans were among the very few peoples who began to question the morality of holding human beings in bondage. That was not yet a majority view among Americans in the 18th century, but it was not even a serious minority view.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Scapegoat for Strife in the Black Community" (7 July 2015), National Review
“If there is one thing that is bipartisan in Washington, it is brazen hypocrisy.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Supreme Hypocrisy", 29 March 2016
“Socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that socialism turns out to be a big disappointment, if not a disaster.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Socialism for the Uninformed", 31 May 2016
“Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for?”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Envy is always referred to by its political alias, 'social justice'.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody else deserves. You can talk about 'social justice' all you want. But what death taxes boil down to is letting politicians take money from widows and orphans to pay for goodies that they will hand out to others, in order to buy votes to get re-elected. That is not social justice or any other kind of justice.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Neither in nature nor among human beings are either equal or randomly distributed outcomes automatic. On the contrary, grossly unequal distributions of outcomes are common, both in nature and among people, in circumstances where neither genes nor discrimination are involved... The idea that it would be a level playing field, if it were not for either genes or discrimination, is a preconception in defiance of both logic and facts.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is unnecessary to attempt any general rule as to where the overall balance lies in comparing the respective costs of knowledge in larger and smaller decision-making units. What is important is to understand that (1) the respective cost advantages of the large and small units differ according to the kind of knowledge involved (general versus specific), that (2) most decisions involve mixtures of the two kinds of knowledge, so that the net advantages of the larger and smaller units vary with the kind of decision, and (3) the effectiveness of hierarchical subordination varies with the extent to which the subordinate unit has knowledge advantages over the higher unit.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As far as party primaries are concerned, both Republican and Democratic Party primaries are dominated by the most zealous voters, whose views may not reflect the views of most members of their own respective parties, much less the views of those who are going to vote in the November general election. In recent times, each election year has seen each party's nominee selected - or at least subject to veto - by its most extreme wing and then forced to try to move back to the center before the general election. This can only undermine the public's confidence in the integrity of the candidates of both parties.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bipartisan Primary Blues", National Review (25 March 2008).
“In the summer of 1959, as in the summer of 1957, I worked as a clerk-typist in the headquarters of the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington. The people I worked for were very nice and I grew to like them. One day, a man had a heart attack at around 5 PM, on the sidewalk outside the Public Health Service. He was taken inside to the nurse's room, where he was asked if he was a government employee. If he were, he would have been eligible to be taken to a medical facility there. Unfortunately, he was not, so a phone call was made to a local hospital to send an ambulance. By the time this ambulance made its way through miles of Washington rush-hour traffic, the man was dead. He died waiting for a doctor, in a building full of doctors. Nothing so dramatized for me the nature of a bureaucracy and its emphasis on procedures, rather than results.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some intellectuals’ downplaying of objective reality and enduring criteria extends beyond social, scientific, or economic phenomena into art, music, and philosophy. The one over-riding consistency across all these disparate venues is the self-exaltation of the intellectuals. Unlike great cultural achievements of the past, such as magnificent cathedrals, which were intended to inspire kings and peasants alike, the hallmark of self-consciously “modern” art and music is its inaccessibility to the masses and often even its deliberate offensiveness to, or mockery of, the masses. Just as a physical body can continue to live, despite containing a certain amount of microorganisms whose prevalence would destroy it, so a society can survive a certain amount of forces of disintegration within it. But that is very different from saying that there is no limit to the amount, audacity and ferocity of those disintegrative forces which a society can survive, without at least the will to resist.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source