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.
THOMAS SOWELLWhat then is the intellectual advantage of civilization over primitive savagery? It is not necessarily that each civilized man has more knowledge but that he requires far less.
More Thomas Sowell Quotes
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To believe in personal responsibility would be to destroy the whole special role of the anointed, whose vision casts them in the role of rescuers of people treated unfairly by society.
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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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The only people I truly envy are those who can play a musical instrument and those who can eat anything they want without gaining weight.
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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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The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people’s money away quietly and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly.
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The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.
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A society in which such decisions can only be made by males has thrown away half of its knowledge, talents, and insights.
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Intellect is not wisdom.
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Economics is more than just a way to see patterns or to unravel puzzling anomalies.
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It is scary how easily so many people can be brainwashed by sheer repetition of a word.
THOMAS SOWELL -
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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Economics is a study of cause and effect relationships in an economy.
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Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers.
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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.
THOMAS SOWELL