Thomas Sowell

More from 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.

  “The Survival of the Left”, Forbes (Sep 8, 1997)

  • Politics

• I have always been offended by the song that says, ‘Everything is beautiful in its own way.’ If everything is beautiful, then the word ‘beautiful’ has no meaning. If everything were purple, there would be no word ‘purple’ in the language because it would not distinguish one thing from another.

  • Beauty

• Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

  Is Reality Optional? (1993), Social Deterioration

  • Politics

All 19 quotes from Thomas Sowell

Popular quotes

• No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.

  John Donne1572–1631No Man Is an Island (1624), Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624), Meditation 17In context

• I came, I saw, I conquered.

  Julius Caesar100–44 BCInscription on the triumphal wagon reported in The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, as translated by Robert Graves (1957).

  • Success

• The unexamined life is not worth living.

  Socrates470–399 BCThe Apology of Socrates (399 BC)

  • Philosophy