Thomas Sowell Quotes – Wisdom and Insights from a Renowned Economist

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it.

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

Minimum wage laws often hurt those they are intended to help.

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

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

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.

Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’.

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.

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

The black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life.

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Mistakes can be corrected by those who pay attention to facts but dogmatism will not be corrected by those who are wedded to a vision.

Government ‘help’ to business is just as disastrous as government persecution.

In the real world, there are consequences when you don’t pay your bills, even if you are called a ‘sovereign nation’.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it.

People who pride themselves on their ‘complexity’ and deride others for being ‘simplistic’ should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

In liberal logic, if life is unfair then the answer is to turn more tax money over to politicians, to spend in ways that will increase their chances of getting reelected.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

Intellect is not wisdom.

The presumed success of the Berlin Wall was largely a product of massive external spending by the Soviet Union, a bankrupt society in the final stages of collapse.

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or men and women, but between talkers and doers.

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.

Rhetoric is no substitute for reality!

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.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

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.

Intellect is not wisdom.

To believe in personal responsibility would be to destroy the whole special role of the anointed, whose vision casts them in the role of rescuers of people treated unfairly by ‘society’.

In short, killing is a problem for any society that wants to maximize its economic growth. That is not an argument against capital punishment. It is a statement of inescapable fact.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

The vision of the anointed is one in which ills as poverty, irresponsible sex, and crime derive primarily from ‘society,’ rather than from individual choices and behavior. To believe in personal responsibility would be to destroy the whole special role of the anointed, whose vision casts them in the role of rescuers of people treated unfairly by ‘society’.

There is something inherently ridiculous in the notion of an overly stylized adult voice being used to address babies.

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

Intellectually, welfare state liberalism seemed to me to be a facile doctrine for people with other options, while for those who had no other options, welfare state liberalism was a way of life that might easily be defended.

People who talk incessantly about ‘change’ are often dogmatically set in their ways.

Nothing is easier than spending the public’s money. It does not appear to belong to anybody.

When you want to lie, you don’t just come right out with it. You disguise it with a little truth.

Those who cry out that the government should ‘do something’ never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing.

Words like ‘racism’ and ‘sexism’ are like ketchup. It was once only sold in two-ounce bottles to spice up hamburgers, but now it comes in gallon containers and is poured over virtually everything Americans say and do.

The big argument for government intervention is that ‘we can’t just stand by and do nothing.’ But when you don’t know what you are doing, doing nothing is usually best.

There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs.

In politics, few talents are as richly rewarded as the ability to convince parasites that they are victims.

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.

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

Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.

In the annals of history, there has never been a country where the poor have gotten out of poverty by being taxed into prosperity.

Instead of prosperity and freedom, socialism has meant starvation and enslavement.

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