Thomas Sowell Quotes

One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans-- anything except reason.

No government of the left has done as much for the poor as capitalism has. Even when it comes to the redistribution of income, the left talks the talk but the free market walks the walk.
What do the poor most need? They need to stop being poor. And how can that be done, on a mass scale, except by an economy that creates vastly more wealth? Yet the political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it.

"People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth."

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

Understanding the limitations of human beings is the beginning of wisdom.

It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer "universal health care."

"If facts, logic, and scientific procedures are all just arbitrarily "socially constructed" notions, then all that is left is consensus — more specifically peer consensus, the kind of consensus that matters to adolescents or to many among the intelligentsia."

People will forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right – especially if events prove you right while proving them wrong.

Many of the dangerous things that drivers do are not likely to save them even 10 seconds. When you bet your life against 10 seconds, that is giving bigger odds than you are ever likely to get in Las Vegas.

Too many Republicans treat English as a second language, with Beltway lingo being their native tongue.

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area - crime, education, housing, race relations - the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.

"Everyone may be called "comrade," but some comrades have the power of life and death over other comrades."

The only people I truly envy are those who can play a musical instrument and those who can eat anything they want without gaining weight.

Intellect is not wisdom.

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.