Thomas Sowell Quotes

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

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.

It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

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.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.

Thomas Sowell Quotes part 2

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.

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.

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.

No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: ‘But what would you replace it with?’ When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

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.

The problem with political jokes is that they get elected.

You can only redistribute wealth that has been created – and that means taking it from somebody productive and giving it to somebody unproductive.

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

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.

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.

The real minimum wage is zero.

An ‘understanding’ of economics does not require a degree in economics, just common sense and an interest in the real world.

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.

Experience trumps brilliance.

How can children ever be expected to learn anything if they are not taught to sit still and listen in school?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In a private enterprise system, success is achieved by servin