If you don't believe in the innate unreasonableness of human beings, just try raising children. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Force is the antithesis of freedom, but force must be used, if only to defend against other force — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you have a right to respect, that means other people don't have a right to their own opinions. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you don't control the borders, it doesn't matter what immigration laws you have. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Some of the people on death row today might not be there if the courts had not been so lenient on them… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you have ever seen a four-year-old trying to lord it over a two-year-old, then you know what the basic problem of… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If we become a people who are willing to give up our money and our freedom in exchange for rhetoric and promises,… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you truly believe in the brotherhood of man, then you must believe that blacks are just as capable of being racists… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you believe in equal rights, then what do “women’s rights,” “gay rights,” etc., mean? Either they are redundant or they are… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The only thing better than "hands-on" experience is hands-off experience - enough experience to understand that some things will turn out better… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
People who think that they are being exploited should ask themselves whether they would be missed if they left, or whether people… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
You have to have a sense of humor if you follow politics. Otherwise, the sheer fraudulence of it all will get you… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The poor are the very lifeblood of the left, attracting activists, supporting among the intelligentsia, and - perhaps most important - allowing… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The grand delusion of contemporary liberals is that they have both the right and the ability to move their fellow creatures around… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can't help wondering if the… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
More than half of all people filing income tax forms use someone else to prepare the forms for them. Then they have… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
We cannot allow the defense of American lives to be held hostage by the United Nations -- which has already given Saddam… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you can't beat them or join them, then do something weird. No matter how much the passengers eat, the weight of… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Even if her children or grandchildren are willing to spend their own money to keep grandma alive, when bureaucrats control the necessary… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Since the government creates no wealth, it can only transfer the wealth required to hire people. Even if the government creates a… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Liberals love to say things like, "We're just asking everyone to pay their fair share." But government is not about asking. It… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If one writing contributed more than any other to the framework in which this work Sowell's Knowledge and Decisions developed, it would… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Financial institutions are not being bailed out as a favor to them or their stockholders. In fact, stockholders have come out worse… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Everyone should be concerned about Internet anarchy in which anybody can pretend to be anybody else, unless something is done to stop… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If the truth is boring, civilization is irksome. The constraints inherent in civilized living are frustrating in innumerable ways. Yet those with… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
One of many problems with survey research in general is that you can only survey the survivors. In other words, if you… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Most Americans living below the official poverty line own a car or truck - and government entitlement programs seldom provide cars and… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Our fate is matched by the total freedom we have to react to our fate. It is as if we were dealt… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
When all is said and done, the Constitution of the United States is a set of words on a piece of paper.… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
We might have been better off if the question of Obama's patriotism had been raised before he was first elected. Never should… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The law of diminishing returns means that even the most beneficial prinicple will become harmful if carried far enough. — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Sometimes it seems as if I have spent the first half of my life refusing to let white people define me and… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
The idea that money is corrupting innocent politicians would be laughable if it did not lead to such dangerous legislation... — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
Whenever people talk glibly of a need to achieve educational "excellence," I think of what an improvement it would be if our… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
You may scoff at the Tooth Fairy if you like. But the Tooth Fairy's approach has gotten more politicians elected than any… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
To the economically illiterate, if some company makes a million dollars in profit, this means that their products cost a million dollars… — Thomas Sowell Copy Share Image
If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even one percent of the total… — 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