Thomas Sowell quotes - page 2

The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy. (Thomas Sowell)
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. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on income distribution, the cold fact is that most income is not distributed It is earned. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for? View quote
Thomas Sowell
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. View quote
Thomas Sowell
I'm always embarrassed when people say that I'm courageous. Soldiers are courageous. Policemen are courageous. Firemen are courageous. I just have a thick hide and disregard what silly people say. View quote
Thomas Sowell
It may be expecting too much to expect most intellectuals to have common sense, when their whole life is based on their being uncommon -- that is, saying things that are different from what everyone else is saying. There is only so much genuine originality in anyone. After that, being uncommon means indulging in pointless eccentricities or clever attempts to mock or shock. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Some of the people on death row today might not be there if the courts had not been so lenient on them when they were first offenders. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Intellectuals may like to think of themselves as people who "speak truth to power" but too often they are people who speak lies to gain power. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Too often what are called "educated" people are simply people who have been sheltered from reality for years in ivy-covered buildings. Those whose whole careers have been spent in ivy-covered buildings, insulated by tenure, can remain adolescents on into their golden retirement years. (Thomas Sowell)
People who talk incessantly about "change" are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Global warming' is just the latest in a long line of hysterical crusades to which we seem to be increasingly susceptible. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Republicans won big, running as Republicans, in 2004. But once they took control of Congress, they started acting like Democrats and lost big. There is a lesson in that somewhere but whether Republicans will learn it is another story entirely. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Although I am ready to defend what I have said, many people expect me to defend what others have attributed to me. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Some of the most vocal critics of the way things are being done are people who have done nothing themselves, and whose only contributions to society are their complaints and moral exhibitionism. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Before the Iraq war I was quite disturbed by some of the neoconservatives, who were saying things like, "What is the point of being a superpower if you can't do such-and-such, take on these responsibilities?" The point of being a superpower is that people will leave you alone. View quote
Thomas Sowell
When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can't help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Both history and contemporary data show that countries prosper more when there are stable and dependable rules, under which people can make investments without having to fear unpredictable new government interventions before these investments can pay off. View quote
Thomas Sowell
One of the most ridiculous defenses of foreign aid is that it is a very small part of our national income. If the average American set fire to a five-dollar bill, it would be an even smaller percentage of his annual income. But everyone would consider him foolish for doing it. (Thomas Sowell)
People who think that they are being "exploited" should ask themselves whether they would be missed if they left, or whether people would say: "Good riddance?" View quote
Thomas Sowell
What the welfare system and other kinds of governmental programs are doing is paying people to fail. In so far as they fail, they receive the money; in so far as they succeed, even to a moderate extent, the money is taken away. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Right after liberal Democrats, the most dangerous politicians are country club Republicans. View quote
Thomas Sowell
It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic. View quote
Thomas Sowell