Uncommon Wisdom

The website Ricochet.com has compiled a list of notable quotes from the venerable Thomas Sowell. Named "our greatest living philosopher" by left wing convert David Mamet, Dr. Sowell produces much more than just witty aphorisms of course. A complete list of his works can be found here - http://www.tsowell.com/writings.html

A sampling from Ricochet's list --

"Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good."

"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."

"Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large."

"The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty."

"I have never understood why it is 'greed' to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money."

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."

"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance."

"There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs."

"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."

"Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late."

“Any serious look at the history of human beings over the millennia shows that the species began in poverty. It is not poverty, but prosperity, that needs explaining. Poverty is automatic, but prosperity requires many things — none of which is equally distributed around the world or even within a given society.”

https://ricochet.com/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-thomas-sowell/

An astute Sowell admirer noted -- "Isn’t it telling that were society to act broadly upon all of Sowell’s statements, we would be much more likely to approach – if not utopia, a far more perfect union. It is also remarkable that progressives pursue the exact opposite of virtually every one of Sowell’s statements. In sum, this captures the ethos of my despair for the future."