903 Quotes by Thomas Sowell

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.288.

The biggest difference between people is between those who are trying to do the right thing – whether or not they succeed – and those for whom the only question is how much they can get away with.

Whether Barack Obama is simply incompetent as president or has some hidden agenda to undermine this country, at home and abroad, he has nearly everything he needs to ruin America, including a fool for a vice president.

Socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous. Among people of every race, color, and creed, all around the world, socialism has led to hunger in countries that used to have surplus food to export... Nevertheless, for many of those who deal primarily in ideas, socialism remains an attractive idea – in fact, seductive. Its every failure is explained away as due to the inadequacies of particular leaders.

The idealism of the left is a very selfish idealism. In their war against ‘the rich’ and big business, they don’t care how much collateral damage there is to workers who end up end up unemployed.

An inmate in a Florida prison wrote to agree with me on the availability of guns, saying that a ‘criminal can and will get a stolen gun faster than you can get your car washed.’ He also points out that many criminals prefer guns gotten illegally, since they will be harder to trace.

If you can’t beat them or join them, then do something weird. No matter how much the passengers eat, the weight of the plane stays the same. Do you sometimes feel that you are necessary but not sufficient?

Each day, as I take various pills, I realize that without those pills I might not be alive – and, if I were, life would not be worth living. Yet those who produce these medications are under constant attack from people who produce nothing.

What makes it possible for politicians to do so many things that are economically counterproductive is that neither the public nor the media know enough of the basics to understand what’s wrong with what they’re saying.