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Thomas Sowell Quotes - Page 13

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When your response to everything that is wrong with the world is to say, 'there ought to be a law,' you are saying that you hold freedom very cheap.

When your response to everything that is wrong with the world is to say, 'there ought to be a law,' you are saying that you hold freedom very cheap.

Law, World, Response

Deception is one of the quickest ways to gain little things and lose big things.

Deception, Littles, Way

Thomas Sowell (2013). “Controversial Essays”, p.323, Hoover Press

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?

Fire, Liberty, Matter

Thomas Sowell (1993). “Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

There are only two economists in Congress and hundreds of lawyers. Does that explain why the government is in such a mess?

Government, Two, Doe

The big problem in the long process of dumbing down the schools is that you can reach a point of no return. How are parents who never received a decent education themselves to recognize that their children are not getting a decent education?

Children, School, Long

Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can't stop with just one.

Government, Potato Chips, Potatoes

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

The greatest danger to the liberal vision are facts about the consequences of liberalism itself and the laws, policies, and ways of life that the left has spawned. That the black family, which survived centuries of slavery and generations of discrimination, has disintegrated in the wake of the liberal welfare states is only one example.

Law, Black, Vision

Since the government creates no wealth, it can only transfer the wealth required to hire people. Even if the government creates a million jobs, that is not a net increase in jobs, when the money that pays for those jobs is taken from the private sector, which loses that much ability to create private jobs.

Jobs, Taken, Government

Because many of us make mistakes that can have bad consequences, some intellectuals believe that it is the role of government to intervene and make some of our decisions for us. From what galaxy government is going to hire creatures who do not make mistakes is a question they leave unanswered.

Mistake, Believe, Government

People used to complain about 'the idle rich.' But the idle rich did not do the kind of harm being done by today's busybody rich, who feed their own egos by bankrolling political crusades on the left which hurt the very people that the left claims to care about -- working people, minorities, and children.

Hurt, Children, People

Nothing as mundane as mere evidence can be allowed to threaten a vision so deeply satisfying.

Vision, Evidence, Mundane

Thomas Sowell (1999). “Barbarians Inside the Gates--and Other Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

As for gun control advocates, I have no hope whatever that any facts whatever will make the slightest dent in their thinking - or lack of thinking.

Hope, Gun, Thinking

Lunches don't get free just because you don't see the prices on the menu. And economists don't get popular by reminding people of that.

Lunch, People, Economics

Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.56, Hoover Press

The biggest difference between people is between those who are trying to do the right thing - whether or not they succeed - and those for whom the only question is how much they can get away with.

Differences, People, Trying

Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force. Making it illegal to pay less than a given amount does not make a worker’s productivity worth that amount—and, if it is not, that worker is unlikely to be employed.

Jobs, Zero, Real

Wise men wrote the Constitution, but clever judges have been destroying it, bit by bit, turning it into an instrument of arbitrary judicial power, instead of a limitation on all government power.

Wise, Clever, Men

If sanity ever returns to our society and we stop taking pretentious elites seriously, one of the signs will be that the public will force the removal of those ugly pieces of twisted metal that are called 'art' in front of government buildings.

Art, Government, Pieces

All that makes earlier times seem simpler is our ignorance of their complexities.

Ignorance, Complexity, Seems

Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.397, ReadHowYouWant.com

To say that 'wealth in America is so unfairly distributed in America,' as Ronald Dworkin does, is grossly misleading when most wealth in the United States is not distributed: at all. People create it, earn it, save it, and spend it.

America, People, United States

You may scoff at the Tooth Fairy if you like. But the Tooth Fairy's approach has gotten more politicians elected than any economist's analysis.

Political, Teeth, Analysis

Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.396, ReadHowYouWant.com

In the political language of today, people who want to keep what they have earned are said to be greedy, while those who wish to take their earnings from them and give it to others (who will vote for them in return) show compassion.

Compassion, Political Language, People

The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending.

Real, Government, Goal

Interview with John Hawkins, rightwingnews.com. February 8, 2012.

The idealism of the left is a very selfish idealism. In their war against 'the rich' and big business, they don't care how much collateral damage there is to workers who end up end up unemployed.

Selfish, War, Care

In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people - and to hate those other people.

Country, Hate, People

What is called 'capitalism' might more accurately be called consumerism. It is the consumers who call the tune, and those capitalists who want to remain capitalists have to learn to dance to it.

Tunes, Want, Might

Thomas Sowell (2010). “Basic Economics 4th Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy”, p.201, Basic Books

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