Thomas Sowell quotes - page 6

The key feature of Communist propaganda has been the depiction of people who are more productive as mere exploiters of others. (Thomas Sowell)
In a world where young blacks, especially, are bombarded with claims that they are being unfairly targeted by police, and where a general attitude of belligerence is being promoted literally in word and song, it is hard not to wonder whether some people's responses to policemen do not have something to do with the policemen's responses to them. Neither the police nor people in any other occupation always do what is right but automatic belligerence is not the answer. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Understanding the limitations of human beings is the beginning of wisdom. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Most problems do not get solved. They get superseded by other concerns. View quote
Thomas Sowell
History shows that degeneracy can be turned around because it has been done in the past. But the real question today is: Will we turn it around-or is what we are doing likely to make matters worse? View quote
Thomas Sowell
To the economically illiterate, if some company makes a million dollars in profit, this means that their products cost a million dollars more than they would have cost without profits. It never occurs to such people that these products might cost several million dollars more to produce if they were produced by enterprises operating without the incentives to be efficient created by the prospect of profits. View quote
Thomas Sowell
The greatness of a free-market economy is that it does not depend upon the wisdom of those who happen to be on top at the moment. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Over the generations, black leaders have ranged from noble souls to shameless charlatans. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Just what is it that academics have to fear if they stand up for common decency, instead of letting campus barbarians run amok? View quote
Thomas Sowell
All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Being willing to donate the taxpayers' money is not the same as being willing to put your own money where your mouth is. (Thomas Sowell)
Wishful thinking is not idealism. It is self-indulgence at best and self-exaltation at worst. In either case, it is usually at the expense of others. In other words, it is the opposite of idealism. View quote
Thomas Sowell
It is hard to read a newspaper or watch a television newscast without encountering someone who has come up with a new 'solution' to society's 'problems.' View quote
Thomas Sowell
Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having their own racial or ethnic leaders to follow. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. View quote
Thomas Sowell
The biggest and most deadly 'tax' rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits - food stamps, housing subsidies and the like - if their income goes up. View quote
Thomas Sowell
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. View quote
Thomas Sowell
A shortage is a sign that somebody is keeping the price artificially lower than it would be if supply and demand were allowed to operate freely. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Few professors would dare to publish research or teach a course debunking the claims made in various ethnic, gender, or other 'studies' courses. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Helping those who have been struck by unforeseeable misfortunes is fundamentally different from making dependency a way of life. View quote
Thomas Sowell
You don't send people to prison on the basis of what other people imagine, or on the basis of media sound bites like 'shooting an unarmed child,' when that 'child' was beating him bloody. (Thomas Sowell)
All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts. View quote
Thomas Sowell
The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country. View quote
Thomas Sowell
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. View quote
Thomas Sowell
Many people, including some conservatives, have been very impressed with how brainy the president and his advisers are. But that is not quite as reassuring as it might seem. View quote
Thomas Sowell