40 Inspiring Thomas Sowell Quotes On Education, Socialism And More!

“The strongest argument for socialism is that it sounds good. The strongest argument against socialism is that it doesn’t work. But those who live by words will always have a soft spot in their hearts for socialism because it sounds so good.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Capitalism makes people pay a price for their failures, while socialism, feudalism, fascism and other systems enable personal failures, especially by those at the top, to be ignored.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“The economic disasters of socialism and communism come from assuming a blanket superiority of those who want to run a whole economy.”

THOMAS SOWELL
Source: SUN SENTINEL

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

THOMAS SOWELL
Source: forbes

“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. “

THOMAS SOWELL

“Socialism’s every failure is explained away as due to the inadequacies of particular leaders.

THOMAS SOWELL

“The political left has never understood that, if you give the government enough power to create ‘social justice,’ you have given it enough power to create despotism.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people—like themselves—need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Just as any moron can destroy a priceless Ming vase, so the shallow and ill-educated people who run our schools can undermine and destroy from within a great civilization that took centuries of dedicated effort to create and maintain.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“A recently reprinted memoir by Frederick Douglass has footnotes explaining what words like ‘arraigned,’ ‘curried’ and ‘exculpate’ meant, and explaining who Job was. In other words, this man who was born a slave and never went to school educated himself to the point where his words now have to be explained to today’s expensively under-educated generation.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Whenever people talk glibly of a need to achieve educational “excellence“, I think of what an improvement it would be if our public schools could just achieve mediocrity.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Apparently almost anyone can do a better job of educating children than our so-called ‘educators’ in the public schools. Children who are home-schooled by their parents also score higher on tests than children educated in the public schools.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Successful education shows what is possible, whether in charter schools, private schools, military schools or home-schooling.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“The challenge is to provide more escape hatches from failing public schools, not only to help those students who escape, but also to force these institutions to get their act together before losing more students and jobs.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“So long as public schools are treated as places that exist to provide guaranteed jobs to members of the teachers’ unions, do not be surprised to see American students continuing to score lower on international tests than students in countries that spend a lot less per pupil than we do.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“The big problem in the long process of dumbing down the schools is that you can reach a point of no return. How are parents who never received a decent education themselves to recognize that their children are not getting a decent education?”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Our whole educational system, from the elementary schools to the universities, is increasingly turning out people who have never heard enough conflicting arguments to develop the skills and discipline required to produce a coherent analysis, based on logic and evidence.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as “racists.”

THOMAS SOWELL
Source: JEWISH WORLD REVIEW

“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.”

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

“The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“The word ‘racism’ is like ketchup. It can be put on practically anything – and demanding evidence makes you a ‘racist’.”

THOMAS SOWELL
Source: THE EAST BAY TIMES

“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.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“If politicians stopped meddling with things they don’t understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.”

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

“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

“Minimum wage laws appear to give low-income workers something for nothing—and appearances are what count in politics. Realities can be left to others, so long as appearances get votes.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems.  They are trying to solve their own problems — of which getting elected and re-elected are No. 1 and No. 2.  Whatever is No. 3 is far behind.” 

THOMAS SOWELL

“Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting ‘the rich’ to pay ‘their fair share’ is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.”

THOMAS SOWELL

“Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.” 

THOMAS SOWELL

“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.”

THOMAS SOWELL

 “In liberal logic, if life is unfair then the answer is to turn more tax money over to politicians, to spend in ways that will increase their chances of getting reelected.”

THOMAS SOWELL