The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.
THOMAS SOWELLRonald Reagan had a vision of America. Barack Obama has a vision of Barack Obama.
More Thomas Sowell Quotes
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Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. Some confuse that feeling with idealism.
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Don’t you get tired of seeing so many “non-conformists” with the same non-conformist look?
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In short, numbers are accepted as evidence when they agree with preconceptions, but not when they don’t.
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The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.
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Rhetoric is no substitute for reality.
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Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.
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The really painful surprise is that so many people based their hopes on his words, rather than on the record of his deeds.
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Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on “income distribution,” the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.
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We should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.
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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.
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Freedom must be distinguished from democracy, with which it is often confused.
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No matter how much people on the left talk about compassion, they have no compassion for the taxpayers.
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No-one is equal to anything. Even the same man is not equal to himself on different days.
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The government is indeed an institution, but “the market” is nothing more than an option for each individual to chose among numerous existing institutions, or to fashion new arrangements suited to his own situation and taste.
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It would be very heard, for example, a basketball owner, no matter how racist he was, to try to operate without Blacks. It would be suicidal.
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If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.
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One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.
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One of the first things taught in introductory statistics textbooks is that correlation is not causation. It is also one of the first things forgotten.
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Socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous.
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It has nothing to say about philosophy or values, anymore than it has to say about music or literature.
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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.
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No amount of taxation is ever described as “greed” on the part of government or the clientele of government.
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If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago and a racist today.
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Life does not ask what we want. It presents us with options.
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It’s amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.
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The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.
THOMAS SOWELL