Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned. - Thomas Sowell
Trade-offs have been with us ever since the late unpleasantness in the Garden of Eden. - Thomas Sowell
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. - Thomas Sowell
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. - Thomas Sowell
It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you stop and think. - Thomas Sowell
Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. - Thomas Sowell
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. - Thomas Sowell
There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously. - Thomas Sowell
Politeness and consideration for others is like investing pennies and getting dollars back. - Thomas Sowell
What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race? - Thomas Sowell
Racism does not have a good track record. It's been tried out for a long time and you'd think by now we'd want to put an end to it instead of putting it under new management. - Thomas Sowell
Liberals seem to assume that, if you don’t believe in their particular political solutions, then you don’t really care about the people that they claim to want to help. - Thomas Sowell
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. - Thomas Sowell
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. - Thomas Sowell
If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly. - Thomas Sowell