What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race? — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Too often the past has been twisted to fit the visions and agendas of the present. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Few of the great tragedies of history were created by the village idiot, and many by the village genius. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“In understanding Black Africa, geography is more important than history. Fernand Braudel” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Much of the world today, including the United States, is still living in the social, cultural, and political aftermath of Britain's cultural… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Not only does the passage of time produce knowledge, it also produces ignorance... As the passage of time removes people with first-hand… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Both history and contemporary data show that countries prosper more when there are stable and dependable rules, under which people can make… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“It would be hard to find anywhere in history a record of any other country going to such efforts, for so long,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
ANYONE who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left, more so than others,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into the ears… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Considering how often throughout history even intelligent people have been proved to be wrong, it is amazing that there are still people… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
One of the painfully sobering realizations that come from reading history is the utter incompetence that is possible among leaders of whole… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Why is history important? Without history, many people have no idea how many of today's half-baked ideas have been tried, again and… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
What does calling this medical care legislation "historic" mean? It means that previous administrations gave up the idea when it became clear… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“However much history may be invoked in support of these policies (affirmative action), no policy can apply to history but can only… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
No individual and no generation has had enough personal experience to ignore the vast experience of the human race that is called… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
For society as a whole, nothing comes as a "right" to which we are "entitled." Even bare subsistence has to be produced-and… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century -- indeed, one of the landmark inventions in the history of the human… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“The reality of an historic struggle for civil rights has degenerated into the hustling rhetoric of Newspeak. “Equal opportunity” now means preferential… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
One undeniable accomplishment of Bill Clinton's presidency was that it kept Jimmy Carter from being the worst U.S. president in history. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Those parts of history that would undermine the vision of the Left - which prevails in our education system from elementary school… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“Hundreds of families throughout New England responded to appeals to donate either 12 shillings per family or a peck of grain to… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“As history has also shown, especially in the twentieth century, one of the first things an ideologue will do after achieving absolute… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
“Cromwell's punitive expedition marked a watershed in Irish history. An estimated 40 percent of the Irish population died either in the war… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Against the background of the Obama administration' s negotiating what can turn out to be the most catastrophic international agreement in the… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Adolescence is a relatively recent thing in human history -- a period of years between the constraints of childhood and the responsibilities… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom - whether black or white… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“In 1962, Democratic President John F. Kennedy, like both Democratic and Republican Presidents and Secretaries of the Treasury in earlier years, pointed out that “it… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Ideological bigotry has become the norm on even our most prestigious campuses, where students can go for years without reading or hearing anything that… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las Vegas casinos. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“One third of all Scots in the mid-nineteenth century moved from one county to another” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
The difference is that we have the hardest and most painful evidence that there was a Holocaust. But, for the global warming scenario that… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“Just as price fluctuations allocate scarce resources which have alternative uses, price controls which limit those fluctuations reduce the incentives for individuals to limit… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
The greatest danger to the liberal vision are facts about the consequences of liberalism itself and the laws, policies, and ways of life that… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Having spent years ruining the housing markets with their interference, leading to a housing meltdown that has taken the whole economy down with it,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
Do all children have some inherent right to live in America if they have done nothing wrong? If not, then why should the children… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
What 'eminent domain' laws mean in practice is that politicians have a right to seize your property and turn it over to someone else,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
“those parts of the British Isles without the advantage of coal deposits or ports, industrialization was as handicapped as in other countries.” — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
The whole idea of equal justice under law is completely incompatible with the idea of judges deciding cases according to "empathy". — Thomas Sowell Copy Share
