The 30 Best Thomas Sowell Quotes

PJ Media ^ | 11 July 2018 | John Hawkins

[Rummyfan]

Thomas Sowell is a prolific author and brilliant economist and he is about as good at distilling conservative wisdom into pithy quotes as anyone you will ever read. If you think there’s not enough extraordinary brilliance left in the world, let me introduce you to Thomas Sowell, one of the greatest minds of our generation.

30. “The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

29. “One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.”

....

[Tax-chick]

America's greatest living intellectual. I saw Dr. Sowell at a speech in San Antonio around 1992. The room was of modest size, but attendance turned out to be much larger, and people were hanging in the windows and sitting on the floor. After his talk, which was about Migrations and Cultures, iirc, young girls were coming up to get his autograph.

[Responsibility2nd]

....that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence black.

Fixed it.

[libertylover]

very little discussion of the doers and the do-nots, those who contribute and those who merely take."

I think my term for this is even better: The makers and the takers.

[TexasTransplant]

Only 30?

[Tax-chick]

If you have plenty of time, you can read all Dr. Sowell’s books. I have a standing offer of a $5 cash bonus to any of my children who finds a Thomas Sowell book I don’t have at the used book store, Salvation Army store, garage sale, or library sale.

[Rummyfan]

15. “Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

[Rummyfan]

6. “There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.”

[Hugin]

“There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs.”

That’s the one I always remember. I went to see if it was on the list and it’s number one! His example was we could end virtually all traffic fatalities by just passing a law that every vehicle have a regulator that prevents it from going over 5mph. It would save tens of thousands of lives, but it wouldn’t be worth it.

[TexasTransplant]

I need to get out more!
(You are 100% Right)

Thanks

[TexasTransplant]

OK ... for the $5 (and because it is fun to go to Re-sales)
I need a list of those that you “Do Have” (I’m probably going to Buy All of them anyway)
I just would like to know which ones that you think you are missing.
(If there is a digital Copy that I could send you... would that count?)

[gigster]

Thomas Sowell’s books should be required reading for all high school social studies classes. (if they still teach it...)

[redinIllinois]

Great read, great quotes.

Thanks for posting.

[gigster]

Right now, in my lap, I have the books: Black Rednecks and White Liberals, and Economic Facts and Fallacies. I've started both of them but will soon return to edify myself.

[Tax-chick]

No, digital doesn’t count. I read only the dead-tree version. I’m leaving for camp soon and don’t have time today, but if I remember when I get back, I’ll give you a list.

[Tax-chick]

Those are both great. “Knowledge and Decisions,” called “The Vision of the Anointed” in the revised edition, literally changed my life.

[dorothy]

One of my personal favorites:

“One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”

- Thomas Sowell

[Chgogal]

Bookmark

[MosesKnows]

I guess we all have an idea of our favorite Thomas Sowell observations. Thanks for sharing yours.

Here are a few of mine:

Inequalities of outcome exist because of inequalities of effort.

Some people are so busy being clever that they don't have time to be intelligent.

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

The most dangerous kind of ignorance is the ignorance of the educated.

Politicians gave us the idea that the things we could not afford individually we could somehow afford collectively through the magic of government.

Liberals hold us individually responsible for nothing but collectively responsible for everything.

In a democracy, we have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees.

I'm adding this one from this thread ... “One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”

Again, thanks for sharing.

[elteemike]

I was still quite young when my Dad explained the concept of “makers, takers and fakers” to me...

Has stuck with me all my days...