Nobody is equal to anybody. Even the same man is not equal to himself on different days. Thomas Sowell More Quotes by Thomas Sowell More Quotes From Thomas Sowell Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it. Thomas Sowell ethnicitycolorrace You don't send people to prison on the basis of what other people imagine, or on the basis of media sound bites like 'shooting an unarmed child,' when that 'child' was beating him bloody. Thomas Sowell mediachildrenpeople Most of the people in the upper income brackets are not rich and do not have wealth sheltered offshore. They are typically working people who have finally reached their peak earning years after many years of far more modest incomes-and now see much of what they have worked for siphoned off by politicians, to the accompaniment of lofty rhetoric. Thomas Sowell earningpeopleyears Do countries with strong gun control laws have lower murder rates? Only if you cherry-pick the data. Thomas Sowell gunstrongcountry What all these lofty and vague phrases boil down to is that the court can impose things that the voters don't want and the Constitution does not require, but which are in vogue in circles to which the court responds. Thomas Sowell phrasescirclesdoe As far as party primaries are concerned, both Republican - and Democratic - Party primaries are dominated by the most zealous voters, whose views may not reflect the views of most members of Thomas Sowell zealouspartyviews What sense would it make to classify a man as handicapped because he is in a wheelchair today, if he is expected to be walking again in a month, and competing in track meets before the year is out? Yet Americans are generally given 'class' labels on the basis of their transient location in the income stream. If most Americans do not stay in the same broad income bracket for even a decade, their repeatedly changing 'class' makes class itself a nebulous concept. Yet the intelligentsia are habituated, if not addicted, to seeing the world in class terms. Thomas Sowell classmenyears The charge is often made against the intelligentsia and other members of the anointed that their theories and the policies based on them lack common sense. But the very commonness of common sense makes it unlikely to have any appeal to the anointed. How can they be wiser and nobler than everyone else while agreeing with everyone else? Thomas Sowell unlikelycommon-sensemade Government's power to bully people who have broken no law is dangerous to all of us. Thomas Sowell governmentlawpeople The way to get people's votes is to say that all their problems are caused by other people, and that you will stop those other people from giving them trouble. But if you really want to help, then you can tell them the truth and risk losing their votes. Thomas Sowell riskgivingpeople What the political left, even in democratic countries, share is the notion that knowledgeable and virtuous people like themselves have both a right and a duty to use the power of government to impose their superior knowledge and virtue on others. Thomas Sowell governmentcountrypeople Let's face it, most of us are not half as smart as we may sometimes think we are-- and for intellectuals, not one-tenth as smart. Thomas Sowell smarthalfthinking Economic policies need to be analyzed in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the hopes that inspired them. Thomas Sowell incentivesinspiredneeds To say that 'wealth in America is so unfairly distributed in America,' as Ronald Dworkin does, is grossly misleading when most wealth in the United States is not distributed: at all. People create it, earn it, save it, and spend it. Thomas Sowell united-statesamericapeople Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society. Thomas Sowell resistanceselfpath Young people in general - and young women in particular - need to understand that they cannot retrieve in their forties the opportunities they threw away in their twenties. Thomas Sowell ageopportunitypeople In the political language of today, people who want to keep what they have earned are said to be greedy, while those who wish to take their earnings from them and give it to others (who will vote for them in return) show compassion. Thomas Sowell political-languagecompassionpeople To include freedom in the very definition of democracy is to define a process not by its actual characteristics as a process but by its hoped for results. This is not only intellectually invalid, it is, in practical terms, blinding oneself in advance to some of the unwanted consequences of the process. Thomas Sowell characteristicsdefinitionsdemocracy Eternal vigilance is only part of the price of freedom. The maturity to live with imperfections is another crucial part of the price of freedom. Thomas Sowell vigilanceimperfectionmaturity Pedestrians never seem to realize that they are a threat to the safety of cars. Thomas Sowell realizingcarsafety
