Thomas Sowell Quotes

Quotes about:

• Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.

  Thomas Sowell

  Teacher, Children, Teaching

  Thomas Sowell (2002). “Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

  206 Copy quote
• 

  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.

  Thomas Sowell

  Business, Stupid, Government

  "Wake Up, Parents!". Column at Jewish World Review, www.jewishworldreview.com. August 18, 2000.

  347 Copy quote

• The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

  Thomas Sowell

  Diversity, Important, Liberty

  "Random Thoughts". Column at Jewish World Review, www.jewishworldreview.com. July 31, 1998.

  158 Copy quote

• Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as 'racists'

  Thomas Sowell

  Race, Racism, People

  266 Copy quote

• 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

  Truth, Lying, Helping Others

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “The Thomas Sowell Reader”, p.398, Basic Books

  315 Copy quote

• What exactly is your 'fair share' of what 'someone else' has worked for?

  Thomas Sowell

  Exactly Is, Share, Fairs

  93 Copy quote

• You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.

  Thomas Sowell

  Libertarian, Outcomes, Procedures

  34 Copy quote

• One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.

  Thomas Sowell

  President, Liberty, Complaining

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.328, Hoover Press

  92 Copy quote

• It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else's opinion.

  Thomas Sowell

  Believe, People, Self Improvement

  135 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Sowell

  Believe, People, Political

  "Random Thoughts". Column at Jewish World Review, www.jewishworldreview.com. February 01, 2002.

  102 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Sowell

  Media, Differences, People

  38 Copy quote

• You may have the right to live anyway you like, but you don't have a right to have other people like it. Respect it or pay for it.

  Thomas Sowell

  People, May, Pay

  35 Copy quote

• What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice.

  Thomas Sowell

  Giving, Justice, Vote

  205 Copy quote

• The left takes its vision seriously - more seriously than it takes the rights of other people. They want to be our shepherds. But that requires us to be sheep.

  Thomas Sowell

  Sheep, Rights, People

  Thomas Sowell (2006). “Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

  102 Copy quote

• ANYONE who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left, more so than others, denigrate and demonize those who disagree with them - instead of answering their arguments.

  Thomas Sowell

  Ideas, People, Political

  254 Copy quote

• An e-mail from a reader says that liberals like to take the moral high ground, even though their own moral relativism means that there is no moral high ground.

  Thomas Sowell

  Mean, Moral High Ground, Mail

  14 Copy quote

• No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems - of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.

  Thomas Sowell

  Two, Numbers, Political

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.88, ReadHowYouWant.com

  198 Copy quote

• You cannot take any people, of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization - including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility, and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain - without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large.

  Thomas Sowell

  Clever, Responsibility, Color

  "What Ails Baltimore? Liberalism, Corruption & Incompetence" by Jack Kelly, www.realclearpolitics.com. May 10, 2015.

  44 Copy quote

• What the political left, even in democratic countries, share is the notion that knowledgeable and virtuous people like themselves have both a right and a duty to use the power of government to impose their superior knowledge and virtue on others.

  Thomas Sowell

  Country, Government, People

  "Presumptions Of The Left". townhall.com. May 16, 2007.

  19 Copy quote

• There are 3 questions that would destroy most of the arguments of the Left. The first is - compared to what? The second is - at what cost? And the third is - what hard evidence do you have?

  Thomas Sowell

  Cost, Firsts, Argument

  57 Copy quote

• How long do politicians have to keep on promising heaven and delivering hell before people catch on and stop getting swept away by rhetoric?

  Thomas Sowell

  Long, People, Heaven

  28 Copy quote

• One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again.

  Thomas Sowell

  Stupid, Ideas, Important

  115 Copy quote

• As long as human beings are imperfect, there will always be arguments for extending the power of government to deal with these imperfections. The only logical stopping place is totalitarianism -- unless we realize that tolerating imperfections is the price of freedom.

  Thomas Sowell

  Government, Long, Imperfection

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.332, Hoover Press

  30 Copy quote

• Would you bet your paycheck on a weather forecast for tomorrow? If not, then why should this country bet billions on global warming predictions that have even less foundation?

  Thomas Sowell

  Country, Weather, Foundation

  "Random Thoughts". Column at Jewish World Review, www.jewishworldreview.com. April 06, 1999.

  103 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Doctors, Government

  Thomas Sowell (2006). “Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

  117 Copy quote

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