The Words of Thomas Sowell

Slavery has existed all over the planet for thousands of years, with black, white, yellow and other races being both slaves and enslavers. Does that mean that everybody ought to apologize to everybody else for what their ancestors did? Or are the only people who are supposed to feel guilty the ones who have money that others want to talk them out of?

— Dismantling America: And Other Controversial Essays (2010)

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The most important decision is always who makes the decision.

— Uncommon Knowledge: Dismantling America (Robinson) (2010)

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We are among the biggest fools in history if we keep on paying people to make us hate each other. Whether it is called by pretty names like 'multiculturalism,' 'diversity' or 'gender awareness,' that is what it all boils down to.

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

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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 assumption that spending more of the taxpayers' money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse.

— Is Reality Optional (1993)

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When it comes to lifting people out of poverty, redistribution of income has a much poorer track record than the creation of wealth. In some places, such as Zimbabwe today, attempts at a redistribution of wealth have turned out to be a redistribution of poverty. While the creation of wealth may be more effective for enabling millions of people to rise out of poverty, it provides no special role for the political left, no puffed-up importance, no moral superiority. Redistribution is clearly better for the left.

— The Cure for Poverty? Wealth (2006)

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By cheering on counterproductive attitudes, making excuses for self-defeating behavior, and promoting the belief that “racism” accounts for most of blacks’ problems, white intellectuals serve their own psychic, ideological, and political interests.They are the kinds of friends who can do more harm than enemies. A crucial fact about white liberals must be kept in mind:They are not simply in favor of blacks in general. Their solicitude is poured out for blacks as victims, blacks as welfare mothers, criminals, political activists against the larger society, as well as those blacks who serve as general counter-cultural symbols against the larger society. White liberals have nothing approaching the same interest in blacks as the principal victims of black criminals or as people advancing themselves within the existing framework of American society, including many who have risen within the military, nor do they get particularly worked up over blacks who build up their own human capital or business capital. None of the many reports of black schools that excel academically seems to arouse any great interest among white liberals. It was not the liberals in Washington, but the Reagan administration, which offered successful black educator Marva Collins an appointment as Secretary of Education."

— Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005), p. 57-58

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While slavery was common to all civilizations, as well as to peoples considered uncivilized, only one civilization developed a moral revulsion against it, very late in its history—Western civilization.

— Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005)

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The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

— Is Reality Optional (1993)

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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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Ask ten people what ‘fairness’ means and you can get eleven different definitions. Expecting the government to promote ‘fairness’ is just giving politicians more arbitrary power.

— Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays (2006), § Random Thoughts

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Stupid people can create problems, but it often takes brilliant people to create a real catastrophe.

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

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The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

— Knowledge and Decisions (1980), p. 79

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Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name, 'social justice'.

— The Quest for Cosmic Justice (1999)

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Whites walk on eggshells for fear of being called racists, while many blacks are preoccupied with protecting the image of black students, rather than protecting their future by telling the blunt truth. It is understandable that some people are concerned about image, about what in private life might be expressed as: “What will the neighbors think?” But, when your children are dying, you don’t worry about what the neighbors think.

— Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005), p. 245

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One of the problems with many of the elites is that the very commonness of common sense does not serve their purposes. It's wonderful to believe you have some insight that all the vast millions don't have, and that therefore you should be making their decisions for them.

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

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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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High tax rates in the upper income brackets allow politicians to win votes with class warfare rhetoric, painting their opponents as defenders of the rich. Meanwhile, the same politicians can win donations from the rich by creating tax loopholes that can keep the rich from actually paying those higher tax rates - or perhaps any taxes at all. What is worse than class warfare is phony class warfare. Slippery talk about 'fairness' is at the heart of this fraud by politicians seeking to squander more of the nation's resources.

— The 'Fairness' Fraud (2012)

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If you’re going to have reparations for slavery, it’s going to be the greatest transfer of wealth back and forth, because the number of Whites who were enslaved in North Africa by the Barbary Pirates exceeded the number of Africans enslaved in the United States.

— Maverick: Jason Riley On The Life And Times Of Thomas Sowell (2020)

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If there is one thing that is bipartisan in Washington, it is brazen hypocrisy.

— Supreme Hypocrisy (2016)

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