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Quote by Thomas Sowell

“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.”

Quote by Thomas Sowell

Author

Thomas Sowell is a renowned economist, born on June 30, 1930. His research spans across various fields such as economic policy, race, and social issues, having a profound impact on economics and the social sciences. more

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“Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.”

Book:Knowledge And Decisions

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“Ideas, as the raw material from which knowledge is produced, exist in superabundance, but that makes the production of knowledge more difficult rather than easier. Many ideas- probably most- will have to be discarded somewhere in the process of producing authenticated knowledge. Authentication is as important as the raw information itself, and the manner and speed of the authentication process can be crucial.”

Important Ideas Process Difficult Information Materials Easier Productions Speed Crucial Raw Materials Discarded

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“The stricter standards and independent, often conclusive, evidence in the physical sciences cannot be generalized to intellectual activity as a whole, even though the aura of scientific processes and results is often appropriated by other intellectuals.”

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Source: Knowledge And Decisions

“Knowledge can be enormously costly, and is often scattered in widely uneven fragments, too small to be individually usable in decision making. The communication and coordination of these scattered fragments of knowledge is one of the basic problems- perhaps the basic problem- of any society.”

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Book:Knowledge And Decisions

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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.”

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Book:Knowledge And Decisions

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“Nothing as mundane as mere evidence can be allowed to threaten a vision so deeply satisfying.”

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Book:Barbarians Inside the Gates--and Other Controversial Essays

Source: Barbarians Inside the Gates--and Other Controversial Essays

“Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into the ears of political overlords as by contributing to the vast and powerful currents of conceptions and misconceptions that sweep human action along.”

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Book:A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles

Source: A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles

“I find nothing more depressing than optimism.”

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Author:Paul Fussell

“Fundamentalist religion is the most pervasive vision of central planning, though many fundamentalists may oppose human central planning as a usurpation or "playing God.This is consistent with the fundamentalist vision of an unconstrained God and a highly constrained man.”

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Book:A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles

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“Organizational progress parallels that in science and technology, permitting ultimate simplicity through intermediate complexity.”

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Book:Knowledge And Decisions

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