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Thomas Sowell

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Famous Thomas Sowell Quotes

“The most basic inherent constraint is that neither time nor wisdom are free goods available in unlimited quantity. This means that in social processes, as in economic processes, it is not only impossible to attain perfection but irrational to seek perfection- or even to seek the best possible result in each separate instance.”

MeanSocialProcessResultsImpossibleEconomicPerfectionAvailableInstanceGoodsQuantityInherentIrrationalUnlimitedConstraints
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“Informal relationships are not mere minor interstitial supplements to the major institutions of society. These informal relationships not only include important decision-making processes, such as the family, but also produce much of the background social capital without which the other major institutions of society could not function nearly as effectively as they do.”

ImportantSocialProcessDecisionProduceMajorsFunctionInstitutionsMereBackgroundsDecision MakingMinorsSupplementsImportant DecisionsDecision Making ProcessSocial Capital
Book:Knowledge And Decisions
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“Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Think things, not words." In words, many see a need for "social justice" to override "the dictates of the market." In reality, what is called "the market" consists of human beings making their own choices at their own cost. What is called "social justice" is government imposition of the notions of third parties, who pay no price for being wrong.”

ThinkingNeedsHumansSaidRealityGovernmentChoicesSocialJusticeHuman BeingsPartyPayCostThirdsSocial JusticeNotionHolmesBeing WrongImpositionThird Parties
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“One of the most basic and pervasive social processes is the sorting and labeling of things, activities, and people... Sorting and labeling processes involve a trade-off of costs and benefits. In general, the more finely the sorting is done, the greater the benefits - and the costs... Sorting and labeling, whether of people or of things, is a sorting and labeling of probabilities rather than of certainties.”

PeopleDoneSocialProcessGreaterCostActivityBenefitsTradeCertaintyProbabilityLabelingSortingTrade Offs
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even one percent of the total knowledge on earth, that shoots down social engineering, economic central planning, judicial activism, and innumerable other ambitious notions favored by the political left.”

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Author:Thomas Sowell
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“One of the most fashionable notions of our times is that social problems like poverty and oppression breed wars. Most wars, however, are started by well-fed people with the time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies or grandiose ambitions, and to nurse real or imagined grievances.”

PeopleWellsWarRealProblemDreamHandsSocialHalfLibertyPovertyAmbitionNotionOppressionIdeologyOur TimeFedsNurseFashionableGrievanceSocial ProblemsGrandiose
Book:Controversial Essays
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“The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody else deserves. You can talk about 'social justice' all you want. But what death taxes boil down to is letting politicians take money from widows and orphans to pay for goodies that they will hand out to others, in order to buy votes to get re-elected. That is not social justice or any other kind of justice.”

WantKindHandsOrderSocialJusticePayLibertyRolesEconomicPoliticianTaxesDeserveEconomicsVoteSocial JusticeTyrannyWidowsOrphanDeserve YouWidows And Orphans
Book:Controversial Essays
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“If the truth is boring, civilization is irksome. The constraints inherent in civilized living are frustrating in innumerable ways. Yet those with the vision of the anointed often see these constraints as only arbitrary impositions, things from which they-and we all-can be 'liberated.' The social disintegration which has followed in the wake of such liberation has seldom provoked any serious reconsideration of the whole set of assumptions-the vision-which led to such disasters. That vision is too well insulated from feedback.”

IfsWayWellsWholeSocialVisionSeriousCivilizationTruth IsBoringDisasterLiberationAssumptionCivilizedInherentFrustratingFeedbackArbitraryConstraintsLiberatedImpositionProvokedDisintegrationReconsideration
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area - crime, education, housing, race relations - the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.”

WorldPastThreeSocialRaceSituationCrimeTheoryInvolvedAreasRelationWesternDecadesDisasterOperationsEngineersHousingDiscouragedRace RelationsAmazing ThingsOver The PastWestern WorldSocial History
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“In its pursuit of justice for a segment of society, in disregard of the consequences for society as a whole, what is called 'social justice' might more accurately be called anti-social justice, since what consistently gets ignored or dismissed are precisely the costs to society. Such a conception of justice seeks to correct, not only biased or discriminatory acts by individuals or by social institutions, but unmerited disadvantages in general, from whatever source they may arise.”

MayWholeMightIndividualSocialJusticeSourceCostConsequenceSocial JusticeInstitutionsPursuitAriseConceptionConsistentlyIgnoredDisadvantagesDisregardBiasedSocial InstitutionsAnti SocialPursuit Of Justice
Book:The Quest for Cosmic Justice
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“Much of the world today, including the United States, is still living in the social, cultural, and political aftermath of Britain's cultural achievements, its industrial revolution, its government of checks and balances, and its conquests around the world.”

WorldStillsStatesGovernmentTodayPoliticalSocialUnitedHistoryUnited StatesRevolutionBalanceAchievementIncludingChecksAround The WorldBritainConquestWorld HistoryWorld TodayAftermathIndustrial RevolutionBritish History
Book:Conquests And Cultures: An International History
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