Thomas Sowell Daily

“I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.” — Thomas Sowell

“Civil rights used to be about treating everyone the same. But today some people are so used to special treatment that equal treatment is considered to be discrimination.” — Thomas Sowell

“The tests are not unfair. Life is unfair, and the tests are measuring the results.” — Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell: “I regard poverty as simply the absence of wealth, so what I look for are the things that cause wealth to occur.” “Everyone is born poor and ignorant. To the extent that people become different, we have to find out what enables them to become different.”

“In 1960, before this expansion of the welfare state, 22 percent of black children were raised with only one parent. By 1985, 67 percent of black children were raised with either one parent or no parent.” — Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell on intellectuals’ eagerness to control how others live their lives: “Among the intelligentsia, there have always been many who are ready to jump on virtually any bandwagon that will take them to the promised land, where the wise and noble few—like themselves—can take the rest of us poor dummies in hand and tell us how we had better change the way we live our lives.”

“Of all ignorance, the ignorance of the educated is the most dangerous. Not only are educated people likely to have more influence, they are the last people to suspect that they don’t know what they are talking about when they go outside their narrow fields.” — Thomas Sowell

“Few skills are so well rewarded as the ability to convince parasites that they are victims.” — Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell: “Anyone who studied history knows that for the first 150 years of this country the federal government did not intervene when the economy turned down. And all that time the downturns all corrected themselves.”

“Equality of rights does not mean equality of results. I can have all the equal treatment in the world on a golf course and I will not finish within shouting distance of Tiger Woods.” — Thomas Sowell

“The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.” — Thomas Sowell

“It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else’s opinion.” — Thomas Sowell

“You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible.” — Thomas Sowell

“Many of the words and phrases used in the media and among academics suggest that things simply happen to people, rather than being caused by their own choices or behavior.” — Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell: “Most academic intellectuals have no serious experience outside the academy.” “They have every incentive to believe that they’re brighter and know more than other people, because they’ve been told that all their lives.”

“Those who glorify the young today do them a great disservice, when this sends inexperienced young people out into the world cocksure about things on which they have barely scratched the surface.” — Thomas Sowell

“If you want to spend your life nursing grievances, you will never run out of grievances to nurse, regardless of what color your skin is.” — Thomas Sowell

“We need to look not at the noble preambles of legislation, but at the incentives created in that legislation. Very often legislation intended to help the disadvantaged in fact pays people to stay disadvantaged.” — Thomas Sowell