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People Quotes by Thomas Sowell

193 People quotes by Thomas Sowell

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Sowell argues that bailing out people who made bad mortgages is no better than rescuing casino gamblers who lost everything. He calls the welfare state a con game that quietly takes money and then gives it back flamboyantly. He also warns that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.

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When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.

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You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible.

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Time was when people used to brag about how old they were - and I am old enough to remember it.

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How you treat the helpless is the real test of morality. Lots of people are flunking that test big time.

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

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It is amazing how many people seem to think that the government exists to turn their prejudices into law.

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How much more of an injustice is it that people who work get more money than people who don't work?

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Too many people in Washington are full of themselves, among other things that they are full of.

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Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they…

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A friend from India told me that a countryman of his said: "I want to go to America. I want to see…

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Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las…

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Government restrictions are attractive to people who want to impose their pet notions without having to count the costs.

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Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a…

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Clearly, only very unequal intellectual and moral standing could justify having equality imposed, whether the people want it or not, as Dworkin…

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One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and…

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People who think that they are being exploited should ask themselves whether they would be missed if they left, or whether people…

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People who have never run even a modest little business assert with great certainty and indignation that heads of multinational corporations are…

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Given that some social processes must convey inherent constraints, the choice is among various mixtures of persuasion, force, and cultural inducement. The…

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During the 1930s, some of the leading intellectuals in America condemned our economic system and pointed to the centrally planned Soviet economy…

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If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all…

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One of the many disservices done to young people by our schools and colleges is giving them the puffed up notion that…

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People used to complain about 'the idle rich.' But the idle rich did not do the kind of harm being done by…

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It is amazing how many people act as if the right to free speech includes the right to be free of criticism…

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'Fair' is one of the most dangerous concepts in politics. Since no two people are likely to agree on what is 'fair,'…

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Socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous. Among people of every race, color,…

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While President Barack Obama has, in one sense, tipped his hand by saying that he wants judges with "empathy" for certain groups,…

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Everyone should be concerned about Internet anarchy in which anybody can pretend to be anybody else, unless something is done to stop…

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When I was teaching at an institution that bent over backward for foreign students, I was asked in class one day: "What…

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The government has brought on the housing problem, partly by these very low interest rates, which encouraged many people to go way…

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Most Americans living below the official poverty line own a car or truck - and government entitlement programs seldom provide cars and…

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

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The dominant orthodoxy in development economics was that Third World countries were trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty that could be…

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The desire to order other people around and make them conform to one own's vision takes many forms.

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People have a vested interest in promoting one set of polices rather than finding out what the truth is.

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

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I'm so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.

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Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.

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...Politics is not about facts. It is about what politicians can get people to believe.

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If you have a right to respect, that means other people don't have a right to their own opinions.

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Government's power to bully people who have broken no law is dangerous to all of us.

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More by Thomas Sowell

The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom - whether black or white…

There is no bigger waste of time than doing 90% of what is necessary.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten…

“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…

Ideological bigotry has become the norm on even our most prestigious campuses, where students can go for years without reading or hearing anything that…

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.

“One third of all Scots in the mid-nineteenth century moved from one county to another”

The difference is that we have the hardest and most painful evidence that there was a Holocaust. But, for the global warming scenario that…

“Just as price fluctuations allocate scarce resources which have alternative uses, price controls which limit those fluctuations reduce the incentives for individuals to limit…

The greatest danger to the liberal vision are facts about the consequences of liberalism itself and the laws, policies, and ways of life that…

Having spent years ruining the housing markets with their interference, leading to a housing meltdown that has taken the whole economy down with it,…

Do all children have some inherent right to live in America if they have done nothing wrong? If not, then why should the children…

What 'eminent domain' laws mean in practice is that politicians have a right to seize your property and turn it over to someone else,…

“those parts of the British Isles without the advantage of coal deposits or ports, industrialization was as handicapped as in other countries.”

The whole idea of equal justice under law is completely incompatible with the idea of judges deciding cases according to "empathy".