For the anointed, traditions are likely to be seen as the dead hand of the past, relics of a less enlightened age, and not as the distilled experience of millions who faced similar human vicissitudes before.
THOMAS SOWELLWhat is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?
More Thomas Sowell Quotes
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Everyone may be called “comrade,” but some comrades have the power of life and death over other comrades.
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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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Nothing is easier than to get peaceful people to renounce violence, even when they provide no concrete ways to prevent violence from others.
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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.
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Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.
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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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When people are presented with the alternatives of hating themselves for their failure or hating others for their success, they seldom choose to hate themselves.
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The media are less a window on reality, than a stage on which officials and journalists perform self-scripted, self-serving fictions.
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A society that puts equality – in the sense of equality of outcome – ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.
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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 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.
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Heedless of the past, we are flying blind into the future.
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The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
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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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It’s amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.
THOMAS SOWELL