The Words of Thomas Sowell

The dirty little secret of liberal politics is that it is not about the poor or "social justice" but is about the political careers and moral exaltation of liberals themselves. The actual consequences of liberal policies on the poor or others seldom receives anything like the amount of attention given to promoting these policies and demonizing the critics of these politics.

— Random Thoughts (2012)

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As a young Marxist in college during the 1950s heyday of the anti-Communist crusade led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, I had more freedom to express my views in class, without fear of retaliation, than conservative students have on many campuses today."

— Dry Rot in Academia (2016)

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The black family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has disintegrated in the wake of the liberals' expansion of the welfare state

— Liberalism Versus Blacks (2013)

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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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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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Nothing is inevitable until it happens.

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

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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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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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There is nothing that politicians like better than handing out benefits to be paid for by someone else.

— Dismantling America: And Other Controversial Essays (2010)

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They talk about immigrants in the abstract, and there are no immigrants in the abstract... We don't have an immigration policy unless we control the border. It doesn't matter what our policy is. If anybody who wants to cross the border can cross, then our policy is just a bunch of words on paper.

— Uncommon Knowledge: Basic Economics (Robinson) (2014)

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Since wealth is the only thing that can cure poverty, you might think that the left would be as obsessed with the creation of wealth as they are with the redistribution of wealth. But you would be wrong.

— Dismantling America: And Other Controversial Essays (2010)

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I've been noticing that whenever there's a great disaster, there always seems to be a Harvard man in the middle of it.

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

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No one is more determined to maintain an ideological monopoly than those academics who talk most about 'diversity' in a physical sense.

— Thomas Sowell's Column on Jewish World Review (2001)

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

— Is Reality Optional (1993), § Random Thoughts

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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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You might think that the collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe would be considered a decisive failure for Marxism, but academic Marxists in America are utterly undaunted. Their paychecks and their tenure are unaffected. Their theories continue to flourish in the classrooms and their journals continue to litter the library shelves.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011)

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It takes no more research than a trip to almost any public library or college to show the incredibly lopsided coverage of slavery in the United States or in the Western Hemisphere, as compared to the meager writings on even larger number of Africans enslaved in the Islamic countries of the Middle East and North Africa, not to mention the vast numbers of Europeans also enslaved in centuries past in the Islamic world and within Europe itself. At least a million Europeans were enslaved by North African pirates alone from 1500 to 1800, and some European slaves were still being sold on the auction blocks in the Egypt, years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed blacks in the United States.

— Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005)

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The last person to trust with power is someone who is dying to have it. The best person to wield power is someone who is reluctant to do so, but who will do it for a while as a civic duty. That is why term limits should make it impossible to have a whole career in politics.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011), § REFLECTIONS ON TERM LIMITS

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When you want to help someone, you'll tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you'll tell them what they want to hear.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011)

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The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.

— The Thomas Sowell Reader (2011)

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