Thomas Sowell Quotes And Sayings

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, turned social theorist, political philosopher, and author. He is currently Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Sowell was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Harlem, New York. Sowell has served on the faculties of several universities. He has also worked for think tanks such as the Urban Institute. Since 1980, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Sowell has written more than thirty books and his work has been widely anthologized. He is a National Humanities Medal recipient.  

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 It.

Those Parts Of History That Would Undermine The Vision Of The Left - Which Prevails In Our Education System From Elementary School To Postgraduate Study - Are Not Likely To Get Much Attention.

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 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.

Prices Are Important Not Because Money Is Considered Paramount But Because Prices Are A Fast And Effective Conveyor Of Information Through A Vast Society In Which Fragmented Knowledge Must Be Coordinated.

Imagine A Political System So Radical As To Promise To Move More Of The Poorest 20% Of The Population Into The Richest 20% Than Remain In The Poorest Bracket Within The Decade? You Don't Need To Imagine It. It's Called The United States Of America.

The Real Goal Should Be Reduced Government Spending, Rather Than Balanced Budgets Achieved By Ever Rising Tax Rates To Cover Ever Rising Spending.

The Big Divide In This Country Is Not Between Democrats And Republicans, Or Women And Men, But Between Talkers And Doers.

Socialism In General Has A Record Of Failure So Blatant That Only An Intellectual Could Ignore Or Evade It.

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.

Mystical References To Society And Its Programs To Help May Warm The Hearts Of The Gullible But What It Really Means Is Putting More Power In The Hands Of Bureaucrats.

Talkers Are Usually More Articulate Than Doers, Since Talk Is Their Specialty.

One Of The Common Failings Among Honorable People Is A Failure To Appreciate How Thoroughly Dishonorable Some Other People Can Be, And How Dangerous It Is To Trust Them.

Over The Generations, Black Leaders Have Ranged From Noble Souls To Shameless Charlatans.

Our Schools And Colleges Are Turning Out People Who Cannot Feel Fulfilled Unless They Are Telling Other People What To Do.

The Old Adage About Giving A Man A Fish Versus Teaching Him How To Fish Has Been Updated By A Reader: Give A Man A Fish And He Will Ask For Tartar Sauce And French Fries! Moreover, Some Politician Who Wants His Vote Will Declare All These Things To Be Among His 'Basic Rights.'

Even The Soviet Union, With Its Huge Nuclear Arsenal, Was A Threat That Could Be Deterred By The Prospect Of Retaliation. But Suicide Bombers Cannot Be Deterred. They Can Only Be Annihilated - Preemptively And Unilaterally, If Necessary.

One Of The Most Pervasive Political Visions Of Our Time Is The Vision Of Liberals As Compassionate And Conservatives As Less Caring.

The Problem Isn't That Johnny Can't Read. The Problem Isn't Even That Johnny Can't Think. The Problem Is That Johnny Doesn't Know What Thinking Is; He Confuses It With Feeling.

Mistakes Can Be Corrected By Those Who Pay Attention To Facts But Dogmatism Will Not Be Corrected By Those Who Are Wedded To A Vision.

Liberals Seem To Assume That, If You Don't Believe In Their Particular Political Solutions, Then You Don't Really Care About The People That They Claim To Want To Help.

It Takes Considerable Knowledge Just To Realize The Extent Of Your Own Ignorance.

Stopping Illegal Immigration Would Mean That Wages Would Have To Rise To A Level Where Americans Would Want The Jobs Currently Taken By Illegal Aliens.

The Word 'Racism' Is Like Ketchup. It Can Be Put On Practically Anything - And Demanding Evidence Makes You A 'Racist.'

People Who Enjoy Meetings Should Not Be In Charge Of Anything.

The Most Basic Question Is Not What Is Best, But Who Shall Decide What Is Best.

If The Battle For Civilization Comes Down To The Wimps Versus The Barbarians, The Barbarians Are Going To Win.

Those Who Cry Out That The Government Should 'Do Something' Never Even Ask For Data On What Has Actually Happened When The Government Did Something, Compared To What Actually Happened When The Government Did Nothing.

In Liberal Logic, If Life Is Unfair Then The Answer Is To Turn More Tax Money Over To Politicians, To Spend In Ways That Will Increase Their Chances Of Getting Reelected.

If People In The Media Cannot Decide Whether They Are In The Business Of Reporting News Or Manufacturing Propaganda, It Is All The More Important That The Public Understand That Difference, And Choose Their News Sources Accordingly.

The More People Who Are Dependent On Government Handouts, The More Votes The Left Can Depend On For An Ever-expanding Welfare State.

The Biggest And Most Deadly 'Tax' Rate On The Poor Comes From A Loss Of Various Welfare State Benefits - Food Stamps, Housing Subsidies And The Like - If Their Income Goes Up.

A Shortage Is A Sign That Somebody Is Keeping The Price Artificially Lower Than It Would Be If Supply And Demand Were Allowed To Operate Freely.

Do All Children Have Some Inherent Right To Live In America If They Have Done Nothing Wrong? If Not, Then Why Should The Children Of Illegal Immigrants Have Such A Right?

What Is Ominous Is The Ease With Which Some People Go From Saying That They Don't Like Something To Saying That The Government Should Forbid It. When You Go Down That Road, Don't Expect Freedom To Survive Very Long.

All Too Often When Liberals Cite Statistics, They Forget The Statisticians' Warning That Correlation Is Not Causation.

The Welfare State Is Not Really About The Welfare Of The Masses. It Is About The Egos Of The Elites.

The Next Time Some Academics Tell You How Important Diversity Is, Ask How Many Republicans There Are In Their Sociology Department.

The Least Productive People Are Usually The Ones Who Are Most In Favor Of Holding Meetings.

The March Of Science And Technology Does Not Imply Growing Intellectual Complexity In The Lives Of Most People. It Often Means The Opposite.

Too Much Of What Is Called 'Education' Is Little More Than An Expensive Isolation From Reality.

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.

What 'Multiculturalism' Boils Down To Is That You Can Praise Any Culture In The World Except Western Culture - And You Cannot Blame Any Culture In The World Except Western Culture.

Groups That Rose From Poverty To Prosperity Seldom Did So By Having Their Own Racial Or Ethnic Leaders To Follow.

All Of Us Should Be On Guard Against Beliefs That Flatter Ourselves. At The Very Least, We Should Check Such Beliefs Against Facts.

The Black Family Survived Centuries Of Slavery And Generations Of Jim Crow, But It Has Disintegrated In The Wake Of The Liberals' Expansion Of The Welfare State.

Each New Generation Born Is In Effect An Invasion Of Civilization By Little Barbarians, Who Must Be Civilized Before It Is Too Late.

Each New Generation Born Is In Effect An Invasion Of Civilization By Little Barbarians, Who Must Be Civilized Before It Is Too Late.

People Who Have Time On Their Hands Will Inevitably Waste The Time Of People Who Have Work To Do.

Freedom Has Cost Too Much Blood And Agony To Be Relinquished At The Cheap Price Of Rhetoric.