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Thomas Sowell Quotes - Page 17

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The fashionable idiocy that haters must have justifications is one of those ideas that George Orwell said only an intellectual could believe -- because no one else could be such a fool.

The fashionable idiocy that haters must have justifications is one of those ideas that George Orwell said only an intellectual could believe -- because no one else could be such a fool.

Believe, Ideas, Intellectual

Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it.

Race, Ethnicity, Color

Subsidies are a shell game, not a net addition to national wealth.

Games, Shells, Subsidies

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.

Heart, Mean, Hands

Given that some social processes must convey inherent constraints, the choice is among various mixtures of persuasion, force, and cultural inducement. The less of one, the more of the others. The degree of freedom that is possible is therefore tied to the extent to which people respond to persuasion or inducement.

People, Choices, Degrees

In this era of non-judgmental mush, too many Americans have become incapable of facing the brutal reality of unprovoked hatred, based on envy, resentment and ultimately on a vicious urge to lash out against others for the pain of ones own insignificance. That has been a common thread in things as disparate as ghetto riots, two world wars, and now Islamic terrorism.

Pain, War, Islamic

One of the big differences between Democrats and Republicans is that we at least know what the Democrats stand for, whether we agree with it or not. But, for Republicans, we have to guess

Differences, Republican, Bigs

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having their own racial or ethnic leaders to follow.

Rose, Leader, Groups

People who believe in 'universal health care' show remarkably little interest - usually none - in finding out what that phrase turns out to mean in practice, in those countries where it already exists, such as Britain, Sweden or Canada. For one thing, 'universal health care' in these countries means months of waiting for surgery that Americans get in a matter of weeks or even days.

Country, Believe, Mean

Time was when people used to brag about how old they were - and I am old enough to remember it.

People, Remember, Enough

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

Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex system for granted, and just improve the things that are not so good. What is lacking in this conception is any sense that a society, an institution, or even a single human being, is an intricate system of fragile inter-relationships, whose complexities are little understood and easily destabilized.

Government, Littles, Assumption

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

Out of every hundred new ideas ninety-nine or more will probably be inferior to the traditional responses which they propose to replace. No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for those are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history.

Men, Ninety Nine, Ideas

Thomas Sowell (1995). “The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy”, Basic Books

If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even one percent of the total knowledge on earth, that shoots down social engineering, economic central planning, judicial activism, and innumerable other ambitious notions favored by the political left.

Engineering, Knowledgeable Person, Political

"Don't Be So Sure". www.nationalreview.com. May 16, 2007.

I hate to make predictions, but I think the economy is going to be permanently changed for the worse. I think our foreign policy is going to lead to changes that will be definitely for the worse, particularly if we drift into a nuclear Iran, which I gather that's what the administration is doing.

Hate, Thinking, Nuclear Iran

Source: www.foxnews.com

Tariffs that save jobs in the steel industry mean higher steel prices, which in turn means fewer sales of American steel products around the world and losses of far more jobs than are saved.

Jobs, Mean, Loss

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

Four things have almost invariably followed the imposition of controls to keep prices below the level they would reach under supply and demand in a free market: (1) increased use of the product or service whose price is controlled, (2) Reduced supply of the same product or service, (3) quality deterioration, (4) black markets.

Black, Quality, Deterioration

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.'

Teaching, Men, Rights

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

If the truth is boring, civilization is irksome. The constraints inherent in civilized living are frustrating in innumerable ways. Yet those with the vision of the anointed often see these constraints as only arbitrary impositions, things from which they-and we all-can be 'liberated.' The social disintegration which has followed in the wake of such liberation has seldom provoked any serious reconsideration of the whole set of assumptions-the vision-which led to such disasters. That vision is too well insulated from feedback.

Civilization, Vision, Arbitrary

Someone recently pointed out how much Barack Obama's style and strategies resemble those of Latin American charismatic despots - the takeover of industries by demagogues who never ran a business, the rousing rhetoric of resentment addressed to the masses and the personal cult of the leader promoted by the media. But do we want to become the world's largest banana republic?

Latin, Media, Leader

Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.100, ReadHowYouWant.com

All justice is inherently social. Can someone on a desert island be either just or unjust?

Islands, Justice, Desert

Thomas Sowell (2001). “The Quest for Cosmic Justice”, p.3, Simon and Schuster

Each day, as I take various pills, I realize that without those pills I might not be alive -- and, if I were, life would not be worth living. Yet those who produce these medications are under constant attack from people who produce nothing.

Medicine, People, Pills

Over the generations, black leaders have ranged from noble souls to shameless charlatans.

Leader, Soul, Black

More than half of all people filing income tax forms use someone else to prepare the forms for them. Then they have to sign under penalty of perjury that these forms are correct. But if they were competent to determine that, why would they have to pay someone else to do their taxes for them in the first place?

People, Income, Use

"Random Thoughts" by Thomas Sowell, www.realclearpolitics.com. June 13, 2006.

The Congressional Budget Office has been embarrassed repeatedly by making projections based on the assumption that tax revenues and tax rates move in the same direction.

Moving, Office, Assumption

"Fiscal Cliff Debate Is About Size of Government, Not Taxing 'the Rich'" by Thomas Sowell, www.realclearpolitics.com. December 4, 2012.

The political left has been weak on protecting society from criminals for more than two centuries.

Two, Political, Criminals

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