In honor of Dr. Sowell, some of his quotes, many have probably been on here before
- “The most basic question is not what is best but who shall decide what is best.”
“Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.
“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.”
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
“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.”
“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.”
“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,
Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
“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
“It’s amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites. ”
― Thomas Sowell
“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,
Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”
― Thomas Sowell,
Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays (Hoover Institution Press Publication)
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”
― Thomas Sowell
“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.”
― Thomas Sowell
“Intellect is not wisdom.”
“Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.”
― Thomas Sowell,
The Thomas Sowell Reader
“Racism does not have a good track record. It's been tried out for a long time and you'd think by now we'd want to put an end to it instead of putting it under new management.
”
― Thomas Sowell
“There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
― Thomas Sowell,
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political
“There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously.”
― Thomas Sowell
“Socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous. Among people of every race, color, and creed, all around the world, socialism has led to hunger in countries that used to have surplus food to export.... Nevertheless, for many of those who deal primarily in ideas, socialism remains an attractive idea -- in fact, seductive. Its every failure is explained away as due to the inadequacies of particular leaders. ”
― Thomas Sowell
“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.”
― Thomas Sowell,
Knowledge And Decisions
“Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.”
― Thomas Sowell
“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”
“Can you cite one speck of hard evidence of the benefits of "diversity" that we have heard gushed about for years? Evidence of its harm can be seen — written in blood — from Iraq to India, from Serbia to Sudan, from Fiji to the Philippines. It is scary how easily so many people can be brainwashed by sheer repetition of a word.”
And so many more