A few gems from Thomas Sowell from the last chapter of the Thomas Sowell Reader.

“There is no greater indictment of judges than the fact that honest people are afraid to go into court, while criminals swagger out its revolving door.”

“Few skills are so well rewarded as the ability to convince parasites that they are victims.”

“Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like national interest.”

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth.  When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

“Ideology is fairy tales for adults.”

“No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: “But what will you replace it with?” When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?”

“People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often unaware that they do not have one-tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together.”

“My favorite New Year’s resolution was to stop trying to reason with unreasonable people.  This has reduced both my correspondence and my blood pressure.”

“Some ideas sound so plausible that they can fail nine times in a row and still be believed the tenth time.  Other ideas sound so implausible that they can succeed nine times in a row and stil not be believed the tenth time.”

“It is amazing how many people seem to think that the government exists to turn their prejudices into to law.”

“As a rule of thumb, Congressional legislation that is bipartisan is usually twice as bad as legislation that is partisan.”

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