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Portrait of Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell

(1930) University Teacher

823 quotes in 2748 categories

Thomas Sowell’s analytical clarity emerges across seven hundred twenty‑three passages, delivering concise arguments on economics, history, and social policy.

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Thomas Sowell is an university teacher, best known for Basic economics.

Quick Facts About Thomas Sowell

Born: June 30, 1930
Profession: University Teacher
Notable works: Basic economics

About Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, economic historian, and social theorist. With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he is a well-known voice in the American conservative movement as a prominent black conservative. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Thomas Sowell

Reality is not optional.

Optional

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Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.

Funny

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Experience trumps brilliance.

Brilliance

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Intellect is not wisdom.

Intellect

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Credentialed ignorance is still ignorance.

Ignorance

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History is the memory of a nation

History

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“Reality does not go away when it is ignored.”

Away

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The real minimum wage is zero.

Minimum

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Social Engineering - The art of replacing what works with what sounds good.

Art

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“African languages one third of all the languages of the world,”

African

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Too often the past has been twisted to fit the visions and agendas of the present.

Agendas

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There are few things more dishonorable than misleading the young.

Dishonorable

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“To the Ibos, Western education was a rare opportunity to be seized.”

Education

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“By 1709, the Irish owned only 14 percent of the land in their own”

Irish

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Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.

Anti political

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Compassion is the use of public funds to buy votes

Compassion

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American prosperity and American free enterprise are both highly unusual in the world, and we should not overlook the possibility that the…

Business

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Asking liberals where wages and prices come from is like asking six-year-olds where babies come from.

Asking

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Creating whole departments of ethnic, gender, and other 'studies' was part of the price of academic peace. All too often, these 'studies'…

Academic

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“Age gives you an excuse for not being very good at things that you were not very good at when you were…

Excuse

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“Foreign workers, attracted to Nigeria from other African countries during boom times, were deeply resented during hard times-and were brutally expelled en…

Hard time

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“How, in the first place, did a peripheral island rise from primitive squalor to world domination?”

First place

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There are only two economists in Congress and hundreds of lawyers. Does that explain why the government is in such a mess?

Congress

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“1914, the coal mines in Wales employed more than a quarter of a million people and supplied approximately one third of the…

Coal Mines

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Fundamentalist religion is the most pervasive vision of central planning, though many fundamentalists may oppose human central planning as a usurpation or…

Central planning

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Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Think things, not words." In words, many see a need for "social justice" to override "the dictates of…

Being wrong

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Knowledge can be enormously costly, and is often scattered in widely uneven fragments, too small to be individually usable in decision making.…

Communication

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Has Obama ever grown even a potted plant, much less a business, a bank, a hospital or any of the numerous other…

Arrogance

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The promotion of "self-esteem" in our schools has been so successful that people feel free to spout off about all sorts of…

Esteem

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Since terrorists are pouring into Iraq in response to calls from international terrorist networks, the number of those who are killed is…

Enemy

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Once you buy the argument that some segment of the citizenry should lose their rights, just because they are envied or resented,…

Arbitrary

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You can only confiscate the wealth that exists at a given moment. You cannot confiscate future wealth - and that future wealth…

Economics

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Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded…

Amazing things

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“One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century -- indeed, one of the landmark inventions in the history of the human…

Airplane

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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…

Able

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If the truth is boring, civilization is irksome. The constraints inherent in civilized living are frustrating in innumerable ways. Yet those with…

Arbitrary

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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…

Bigs

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In their zeal for particular kinds of decisions to be made, those with the vision of the anointed seldom consider the nature…

Amount

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One of the biggest reasons for higher medical costs is that somebody else is paying those costs, whether an insurance company or…

Answers

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In its pursuit of justice for a segment of society, in disregard of the consequences for society as a whole, what is…

Anti social

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Thomas Sowell by topic

People (193) Politics (151) Government (80) Political (63) Ifs (62) Politician (52) Economics (40) Want (39) Education (39) Facts (38) Time (34) Social (34) Country (33) World (32) Trump (31) History (31) Problem (30) Left (30) Taxes (29) States (29) Pay (29) Should (28) Money (28) Freedom (28) Way (27)