The Words of Thomas Sowell

If politicians stopped meddling with things they don’t understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011), § Random Thoughts

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If you don’t believe in the innate unreasonableness of human beings, just try raising children.

— Controversial Essays (2002), p. 321

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We do not have a choice whether or not to discuss history. History has always been invoked in contemporary controversies. The only choice is between discussing what actually happened in the past and discussing notions projected into the past for present purposes. History is the memory of the human race. For an individual to wake up some morning with no memory would be devastating.

— Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005), p. 276

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When you consider what an enormous windfall gain it is to be born in America, it is painful to hear some people complain bitterly that someone else got a bigger windfall gain than they did.

— Random Thoughts (2001)

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Do you want airline pilots chosen for demographic representation of various groups, or would you prefer to fly with pilots who are chosen for their mastery of all the complex things that increase your chances of arriving safely at your destination?

— Uncommon Knowledge: Social Justice Fallacies (Robinson) (2023)

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Slavery existed all over the world for thousands of years among all sorts of people, as far back as the history of the human species goes. It’s one of many evils that the Left tries to localize, when in fact it is a universal evil.

— Video Interview

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Criminals understand that they are at war with society. But many of those whose jobs it is to protect society do not want to treat criminals like mortal enemies. Somewhere out there in the affluent suburbs, there is a white liberal judge who feels good about himself because he gave a ghetto youth another chance. The price of his moral vanity is paid in blood — by others.

— Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)

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Advice to the young: You don’t have to listen to anybody. You can learn everything from your own personal experience. Of course, you will be at least 50 years old by the time you know what you need to know at 25.

— Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)

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We live in Western civilization. That's why you ought to study it... To talk about why do we study Western civilization rather than other civilizations, you might as well ask why do we study the Earth instead of other planets and other galaxies.

— WAMU: Inside American Education (Diane Rehm radio) (Rehm) (1993)

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Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

— Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays (2006)

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The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.

— Inside American Education (1993), Ch. 1

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Life does not ask us what we want. It presents us with options."

— Basic Economics (2000), p. 23

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Does anyone seriously believe that excuse-making and counterproductive policies on crime are a favor to black communities? It is now so widely known and so well documented that black people are the main victims of black criminals that there is no room for honest misunderstanding on this subject.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011), § PASSING IN REVIEW

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As of 1948, during this period of no effective minimum wage law, the unemployment rates of both black and white teenagers were just a fraction of what they would become in later years, as minimum wage rates began rising in the 1950s to catch up, and then keep up, with inflation in later years.

— Discrimination and Disparities (2018)

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In other words, when people choose their occupations according to what the public wants and is willing to pay for. that is ‘greed,’ but when the public is forced to pay for what the anointed want done, that is ‘public service.’

— The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy (1995), Ch. 7

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There is no greater indictment of judges than the fact that honest people are afraid to go into court, while criminals swagger out its revolving doors.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011)

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Journalists cannot serve two masters. To the extent that they take on the task of suppressing information or biting their tongue for the sake of some political agenda, they are betraying the trust of the public and corrupting their own profession.

— The Media and Politics (2008)

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In the academic world, diversity means black leftists, white leftists, female leftists, and Hispanic leftists. Demographic diversity conceals ideological conformity.

— Controversial Essays (2002)

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Those who are primarily concerned about the well-being of the poor are likely to discover over time that much of the agenda of the left does not really do much good for the poor, and some of that agenda—environmental extremism, for example—actually makes the poor worse off.

— Controversial Essays (2002)

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The ideas of the political left are not bad ideas. They just don't apply to human beings. That is why the left has always had to try to change human nature, whether through 're-education' camps 'brainwashing' in China, creating a "Soviet Man" in the U.S.S.R., or 'values clarification' programs in American schools.

— Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)

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