We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did.
THOMAS SOWELLWhen you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.
More Thomas Sowell Quotes
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The history of which peoples, nations, or civilizations have conquered or enslaved which other peoples, nations, or civilizations has been largely a history of who has been in a position to do so.
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People who pride themselves on their “complexity” and deride others for being “simplistic” should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.
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People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.
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Whenever someone refers to me as someone “who happens to be black,” I wonder if they realize that both my parents are black. If I had turned out to be Scandinavian or Chinese, people would have wondered what was going on.
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The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.
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The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody else deserves.
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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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What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.
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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.
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As history has also shown, especially in the twentieth century, one of the first things an ideologue will do after achieving absolute power is kill.
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The purpose of education is to give the student the intellectual tools to analyze, whether verbally or numerically, and to reach conclusions based on logic and evidence.
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Many on the political left are so entranced by the beauty of their vision that they cannot see the ugly reality they are creating in the real world.
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I am so old that I can remember when other people’s achievements were considered to be an inspiration, rather than a grievance.
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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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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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It doesn’t matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.
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When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.
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Reality does not go away when it is ignored.
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Freedom must be distinguished from democracy, with which it is often confused.
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If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.
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Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.
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When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.
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Intellect is not wisdom.
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Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers.
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Failure is part of the natural cycle of business. Companies are born, companies die, capitalism moves forward.
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The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.
THOMAS SOWELL