Thomas Sowell Quotes

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

“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.”

“Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.”

“Prices are important not because money is considered paramount but because prices are a fast and effective conveyor of information through a vast society in which fragmented knowledge must be coordinated.”

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

“Intellect is not wisdom.”

“Facts do not speak for themselves. They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are mere isolated curiosities.”

“People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realise that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.”

“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 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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers.”

“Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.”

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

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

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

“If you want to get each individual's honest opinion, you don't want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.”

“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.”

“There are few things more dishonourable than misleading the young.”

“Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilisation by little barbarians, who must be civilised before it is too late.”

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

“Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society.”