33 thought-provoking Quotes by Thomas Sowell to make you think

Today I am exploring some thought-provoking quotes by Thomas Sowell, who is, in my opinion, one of the great American thinkers of his time.

If you’re not familiar with Thomas Sowell, he is an American economist, economic historian, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is also a well-known voice in the American conservative movement and a prominent black conservative.

Thomas Sowell was born into a poor family in segregated Gastonia, North Carolina. Despite his humble beginnings, he graduated from Harvard University in 1958, which is a truly remarkable achievement, given the challenges he would have faced at that time.

To me, Thomas Sowell is an impressive character quite simply because he rose above the obvious disadvantages he faced and proved that, if we are prepared to take personal responsibility for our lives, we all have the power to achieve our full potential.

Thomas Sowell is the author of more than 45 books on a variety of subjects, including politics, economics, education, and race, and he has been a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers.

I’ve heard him speak many times and, in my opinion, he has a lot of interesting things to say. There are many videos on YouTube featuring Thomas Sowell and I recommend you check some of them out.

However, not before you’ve read today’s thought-provoking quotes by Thomas Sowell which are listed below.

Quotes by Thomas Sowell (1-11):

Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

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

There are few things more dishonourable than misleading the young.

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realise the extent of your own ignorance.

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth – anonymously and posthumously.

Too much of what is called education is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favour of holding meetings.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.

Quotes by Thomas Sowell (12-22):

You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats’ procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.

The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

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.

Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today’s problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.

Elections should be held on April 16^th – the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

What multiculturalism boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

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.

Tariffs that save jobs in the steel industry mean higher steel prices, which in turn means fewer sales of American steel products around the world and losses of far more jobs than are saved.

The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.

Quotes by Thomas Sowell (23-33):

The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore, we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting the rich to pay their fair share is part of a big charade. This is not about economics; it is about politics.

One of the common failings among honourable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonourable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.

The biggest and most deadly tax rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits – food stamps, housing subsidies and the like – if their income goes up.

Hyperinflation can take virtually your entire life’s savings, without the government having to bother raising the official tax rate at all.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.

Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the economy still does not recover, Keynesians can always say that it would have worked if only the government had spent more.

Like a baseball game, wars are not over till they are over. Wars don’t run on a clock like football. No previous generation was so hopelessly unrealistic that this had to be explained to them.

Being willing to donate the taxpayers’ money is not the same as being willing to put your own money where your mouth is.

Please share this post with your friends:

Were these thought-provoking quotes by Thomas Sowell interesting to you, dear reader?

If they were, then perhaps they might interest others, you know, too.

Please share them with your friends on social media because when you share, everyone wins. If you could share them now, I’d be ever so grateful.

Like every blogger, I can only keep doing what I do if readers are viewing my blog posts. So you really can help me, dear reader.

Thank you for your support, dear reader.

Articles you might enjoy:

(Visited 58 times, 58 visits today)