June 30, 2022: Happy 92nd birthday to my favorite public intellectual who said the following:

“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”

Thomas Sowell, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays

“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.”

“It’s amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.”

“People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.

Thomas Sowell, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays

“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”

Thomas Sowell, Is Reality Optional? and Other Essays

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

“The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

“Intellect is not wisdom.”

“Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God.”