Quotes from Thomas Sowell

By the late eighteenth century, the lowlands of Scotland had developed the most extensive system of education in

Unsafe at Any Speed is a classic of propaganda in its ability to use distracting or dismissive rhetoric to evade a need to confront opposing arguments with evidence or logic.

69 The Smithsonian's own view of its mission was that it should "tell visitors immediately what we are about and how we'd like them to change."70 In other words, the purpose of a taxpayer-supported institution is to express the ideologies of those who run it and to brainwash the visiting public with the vision of the anointed.

In Hawaii, the most generous state, an unemployed single mother with two children has been eligible for welfare benefits worth more than $49,000 a year.

It would be naive to overlook the self-interest behind many of the glowing pleas for "expanded educational opportunity for youth." Since youth must compete against each other for jobs, more "opportunity" for tax-subsidized education of middle-class students means a continued escalation of degree requirements for jobs and corresponding restriction of opportunity for youths from poorer families.

Definitions being what they are, young people who waste their time around the house or on street corners are called "unemployed," while those who waste their time in classrooms are called "students.

Quibbles about the fact that some other European explorers touched the hemisphere earlier, or that the Indians knew it was here all along, trivialize this turning point in the history of the world.

If white racism is the cause of lower educational and economic outcomes for black Americans, why are black Nigerians exempt?

The strategic location of the intelligentsia, whether in the mass media or in educational institutions, enables them to filter what information gets through to the general public, protecting the welfare state vision and with it a flattering vision of themselves.

Contrary to various economic theories of imperialism, Africa was not a major outlet for European investment or exports.

Black votes matter to many politicians — more so than black lives. That is why such politicians must try to keep black voters fearful, angry and resentful. Racial harmony would be a political disaster for such politicians. Racial polarization makes both the black population and the white population worse off, but it makes politicians who depend on black votes better off.

This mutual receptivity to each other's culture in the Middle Ages is now very much part of a long gone past. One revealing sign of today's lack of cultural receptivity to Western culture in the Middle East is that in today's Arab world— about 300 million people in more than 20 countries23— the number of books translated from other languages has been just one-fifth of the number translated by Greece alone, for a population of 11 million people.

High voter turnout, which some equate with a healthy democracy, has been in Nigeria (and in some other countries) an indication instead of a fever pitch of political polarization.

massive role of government in the economy has made politics the pre-eminent route to prosperity, as well as power-whether for individuals, tribes, or regions.

The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to society, except their constant criticisms, can feel both intellectually and morally superior.

A Yoruba governor, defeated through vote fraud, was later found by a court to have won in fact by a million votes.

The idea of rescuing oppressed minorities ignored the prospect—since become a reality—that oppressed minorities who became rulers of their own nations would immediately begin oppressing other minorities under their control.

So dominant did the Indians become over vast regions of East Africa that the rupee became the prevailing currency in much of that region.

the complacency of assured social position dulled the incentives necessary for the arduous task of developing native talents to the fullest.

The primary objective of Federal efforts in family life and sex education has been to reduce unwanted pregnancy rates among teenagers, while the primary goal of most sex educators appears to be encouragement of healthy attitudes about sex and sexuality.

Forced labor was one of the most widespread and most deeply resented of the chronic abuses to which conquered Africans were subjected.

Far from being a national crisis of affordable housing, outrageous rents and astronomical home prices are largely confined to a relatively few places along the east and west coasts. Rent per square foot of apartment space in San Francisco is more than double what it is in Denver, Dallas, or Kansas City, and nearly three times as high as in Memphis. Home prices show even greater disparities.

The impact of European conquerors on Africa, for good and evil, was relatively brief as history is measured-about three generations, as compared to the centuries in which the Romans ruled Britain or imperial China ruled parts of southeast Asia or the Moors ruled Spain.

The availability of federal grants and loans to help students meet rising tuition costs virtually ensures that those costs will rise. A college which kept tuition affordable could forfeit millions of dollars annually in federal money available to cover costs over and above what students can afford, according to a financial aid formula. Arguments