The Words of Thomas Sowell

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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Of all ignorance, the ignorance of the educated is the most dangerous. Not only are educated people likely to have more influence, they are the last people to suspect that they don't know what they are talking about.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011)

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War makes me respect soldiers and despise politicians.

— Controversial Essays (2002), p. 321

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What was peculiar about the West was not that it participated in the worldwide evil of slavery, but that it later abolished that evil, not only in Western societies but also in other societies subject to Western control or influence. This was possible only because the anti-slavery movement coincided with an era in which Western power and hegemony were at their zenith, so that it was essentially European imperialism which ended slavery. This idea might seem shocking, not because it does not fit the facts, but because it does not fit the prevailing vision of our time.

— Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005), p. 134-135

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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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Both the Sicilian mafia and the criminal tongs in China began as movements to defend the oppressed, so perhaps we should not be so painfully surprised that venerable American civil rights organizations have begun to degenerate into extortion rackets.

— Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays (2006), p. 450

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The biggest difference between the left and right today, when it comes to racial issues, is that liberals tend to take the side of those blacks who are doing the wrong things — hoodlums the left depicts as martyrs, while the right defends those blacks more likely to be the victims of those hoodlums.

— Black and White, Left and Right (2016), 22

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No matter what you say, there are people who will hear only what they want to hear. Many of the heated political controversies of our times can be traced to that simple fact.

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

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The welfare state is the greatest confidence racket of all time. The government takes your money in taxes and then turns around and spends some of it to give you things. For this, you feel dependent on them, when in fact they are dependent on you.”

— Controversial Essays (2002), p. 306

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There is really nothing very mysterious about why our public schools are failures. When you select the poorest quality college students to be public school teachers, give them iron-clad tenure, a captive audience, and pay them according to seniority rather than performance, why should the results be surprising?

— Is Reality Optional (1993)

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The fundamental problem of the political Left seems to be that the real world does not fit their preconceptions. Therefore, they see the real world as what is wrong and what needs to be changed, since apparently their preconceptions cannot be wrong.

— The Mindset of the Left: Part III (2013)

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Whether blatant or subtle, brainwashing has become a major, time-consuming activity in American education at all levels. Some zealots have not hesitated to use the traditional brain-washing technique of emotional trauma in the classroom to soften up children for their message. Gruesome and graphic movies on nuclear war, for example, have reduced some school children to tears—after which the teacher makes a pitch for whatever movement claims to reduce such dangers. Another technique is the ambush shock: A seventh-grade teacher in Manhattan, for example, innocently asked her students to discuss their future plans—after which she said: ‘Haven’t any of you realized that in this world with nuclear weapons no one in this class will be alive in the year 2000?’

— Inside American Education (1993), Ch. 1

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The biggest hypocrites on gun control are those who live in upscale developments with armed security guards – and who want to keep other people from having guns to defend themselves. But what about lower-income people living in high-crime, inner city neighborhoods? Should such people be kept unarmed and helpless, so that limousine liberals can ’make a statement’ by adding to the thousands of gun laws already on the books?

— Gunning for guns (1999)

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The secret of the welfare state is you can do almost anything in the short run, juggling money from here to there. But in the long run, the arithmetic can't be ignored, and you're gonna run out of money.

— Uncommon Knowledge: The Trickle-Down Lie (Robinson) (2012)

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Liberals take positions that make them look good and feel good — and show very little interest in the actual consequences for others, even when liberal policies are leaving havoc in their wake.

— Affirmative-action facts refute what liberals believe is best (2010)

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So many idealistic political movements for a better world have ended in mass-murdering dictatorships. Giving leaders enough power to create ‘social justice’ is giving them enough power to destroy all justice, all freedom, and all human dignity.

— Controversial Essays (2002)

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The idea that taxpayers owe it to you to pay for what you want suggests that much of today’s education fails to instill reality, and instead panders to a self-centered sense of entitlement to what other people have earned.

— Political elites think they know more than they do (2010)

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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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In politics, what matters is not what the facts are. What matters is what people believe, because people vote on the basis of what they believe and not on the basis of what the facts are.

— Uncommon Knowledge: The Housing Boom and Bust (Robinson) (2009)

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If you want to fulfill your duty as a citizen, then you need to become an informed voter. And if you are not informed, then the most patriotic thing you can do on election day is stay home. Otherwise your vote, based on whims or emotions, is playing Russian roulette with the fate of this nation.

— Why Have Elections? (2015)

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