The Words of Thomas Sowell

Have you ever heard anyone as incoherent as the people staging protests across the country? Taxpayers ought to be protesting against having their money spent to educate people who end up unable to say anything beyond repeating political catch phrases.

— Random thoughts on the passing scene (2011)

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I don't want people making decisions who don't pay the price of their decisions, and that's what politics is all about.

— C-SPAN Interview

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The course of history is determined by what people do with their opportunities.

— Free To Choose: Common Sense in a Senseless World (doc) (Riley) (2021)

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Intellectuals as a class are dependent upon the backing of political power to impose their visions on the underlying population.

— Knowledge and Decisions (1980)

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Different people have very different reactions to President Barack Obama. Those who listen to his rhetoric are often inspired, while those who follow what he actually does are often appalled.”

— Obama rhetoric is fine, results lagging (2009)

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Many on the political left are so entranced by the beauty of their vision that they cannot see the ugly reality they are creating in the real world.

— Random Thoughts (2001)

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Evidence and compelling logic is an enemy of dogmas, and one dealt with as an enemy by small but growing numbers of modern intellectuals.

— Intellectuals and Society (2009)

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Barack Obama’s political genius is his ability to say things that will sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail, regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says may be to those who have.

— Obama’s ‘Balanced’ Approach (2011)

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Envy used to be just a human failing, but today it is a major industry. Politicians, journalists and academics are all part of that industry, which some call ‘social justice.’

— Hard Times for Envy (2003)

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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.

— Taxing the Poor (2012)

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Everyone hated the idea of being a slave but few had any qualms about enslaving others. Slavery was just not an issue, not even among intellectuals, much less among political leaders, until the 18th century – and then it was an issue only in Western civilization. Among those who turned against slavery in the 18th century were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and other American leaders. You could research all of the 18th century Africa or Asia or the Middle East without finding any comparable rejection of slavery there. But who is singled out for scathing criticism today? American leaders of the 18th century.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011), § TWISTED HISTORY

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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 next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

— Controversial Essays (2002), p. 318

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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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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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Income is not distributed. Newspapers are distributed, Social Security checks are distributed. Income is not distributed. People earn it directly from those to whom they provide some good or service.

— Uncommon Knowledge - Thomas Sowell on the second edition of Intellectuals and Society (2012)

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The human race began in poverty, so there's no mysterious explanation as to why some people are poor. The question is, why have some people gotten prosperous? Poverty is not a mystery to be solved by intellectuals.

— Uncommon Knowledge: Intellectuals and Society, Revisited (Robinson) (2012)

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You have to have a sense of humor if you follow politics. Otherwise, the sheer fraudulence of it all will get you down.

— Jewish World Review Column (2001)

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I'm so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.

— Who Is Racist? (2013)

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As of 1960, almost 100 years after slavery ended, the majority of Black kids were being raised in two-parent households. But within one generation after the welfare state, that dropped to a minority. When you think about it, centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow did not destroy the Black family, but one generation of the welfare state did.

— Uncommon Knowledge: Wealth, Poverty, and Politics (Robinson) (2015)

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