Thomas Sowell ( 10 of 95 )
Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.
Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.
It is precisely those things which belong to "the people" which have historically been despoiled- wild creatures, the air, and read more
It is precisely those things which belong to "the people" which have historically been despoiled- wild creatures, the air, and waterways being notable examples. This goes to the heart of why property rights are socially important in the first place. Property rights mean self-interested monitors. No owned creatures are in danger of extinction. No owned forests are in danger of being leveled. No one kills the goose that lays the golden egg when it is his goose.
The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often read more
The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.
The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that read more
The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family- which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars and depressions- began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to "help."
Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.
Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.
Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: read more
Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.
Much of what sophisticates loftily refer to as the "complexity" of the real world is in fact the inconsistency in read more
Much of what sophisticates loftily refer to as the "complexity" of the real world is in fact the inconsistency in their own minds.
What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race.
What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race.
We should listen first and foremost to our own experience...We should stop looking for saviors... Society has not existed for read more
We should listen first and foremost to our own experience...We should stop looking for saviors... Society has not existed for thousands of years because it had a succession of saviors. It's existed because it has institutions and processes through which people can realize their own goals.
The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should read more
The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.
