Thomas Sowell Quotes

Thomas Sowell (52)

Birth:	30th June, 1930
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Economist, Philosopher, Theorist

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Today's Anniversary - 20th June

Births

• 1923 - Peter Gay
• 1858 - Charles W. Chesnutt
• 1930 - Catherine Aird
• 1928 - Jean-Marie Le Pen
• 1928 - Eric Allan Dolphy Jr.

Deaths

• 1995 - Emil Cioran
• 2002 - Erwin Chargaff
• 1984 - Estelle Winwood
• 1977 - Fairfax M. Cone
• 2005 - Jack Kilby

• You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Until, Bureaucracy

• Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Too Late, Barbarian

• If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Battle, Barbarian

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

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Shall, Decide

• Stopping illegal immigration would mean that wages would have to rise to a level where Americans would want the jobs currently taken by illegal aliens.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Wages, Alien

• 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.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Discourage, Day

• It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Pay, Dangerous

• The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Technology

  Tags in Often, Lives

• There are only two ways of telling the complete truth – anonymously and posthumously.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Truth

  Tags in Anonymously, Complete

• Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Totalitarianism, Human

• The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Fate

  Tags in Instead

• What ‘multiculturalism’ boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Western, Blame

• People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hands, Waste

• The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Productive, Usually

• It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Knowledge

  Tags in Extent, Realize

• The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Surprised, Survive

• The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Rising, Rather

• 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.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Confuses, Problem

• Liberals seem to assume that, if you don’t believe in their particular political solutions, then you don’t really care about the people that they claim to want to help.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Liberals, Seem

• Too much of what is called “education” is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.

  Thomas Sowell

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Called, Expensive