Thomas Sowell Quotes

I still consider myself working class. I know my circumstances have changed dramatically since I was growing up back in Birkenhead.

My parents were determined to move into the middle class.

Upward mobility across classes peaked in the U.S. in the late 19th century. Most of the gains of the 20th century were achieved en masse; it wasn't so much a phenomenon of great numbers of people rising from one class to the next as it was standards of living rising sharply for all classes. You didn't have to be exceptional to rise.

My parents climbed their way to the middle class.

The American dream, what we were taught was, grow up, own a car, own a house. I think that dream's completely changing. We were taught to keep up with the Joneses. Now we're sharing with the Joneses.

I never considered the working class anything other than something to get out of.

The upwardly mobile American is becoming a statistical oddity..

For income growth to occur in a society, a large fraction of people must experience changes in the possible lives they imagine for themselves and their children, and these new visions of possible futures must have enough force to lead them to change the way they behave.

I never met a poor person who wanted to soak the rich; they want to get rich.

Outside of the family, education is the greatest determinant of social mobility.

I'm not normally a jewelry person. I'm supposed to be a working class champion and all, and I don't like to rub my success in people's faces.

Living here in North America - I have been Americanized. When I go back home now, there are things that I have far less tolerance for in South Africa. We've come such a long way in terms of race relations and the economy as well as people's willingness to move on. There are still a lot of things that are frustrating about being in South Africa.

I came from nothing. I came from the projects and welfare and ended up a millionaire with no frame of reference. I was bound to hit a wall sooner or later.

America is a place where you can be born into a low-income household but still lift yourself up, and it doesn't matter what color you are.

If I was freer than I had ever been in my life, I was not yet entirely free, for I still hung on to an idea that had been set deep in me by all my schooling so far: I was a bright boy and I ought to make something out of myself... something else that would be a cut or two above my humble origins.

Traditionally the great men of our country have sprung from poor environments; that being so, it would appear we have long suffered from a severe lack of poverty.

The rich are those who play to win. The middle class plays not to lose.

However my parents - both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

My parents grew up working class, but in that way that working class families do, they spent a fortune on education to better me.

I am from the working class. I am now what I was then. No amount of balsamic vinegar and Prada handbags could make me forget what it was like to be poor.

What many economists fail to understand is that poor people are no less concerned about improving their lot and that of their children than rich people are.

Coming from where I came from, it was unimaginable to ever be wealthy. That was just too far out of my reach.

One thing that was very clear to me is that the young people in a place like Annawadi aren't tripping on caste the way their parents are. They know their parents have these old views.

I don't know how you can move out of one's socioeconomic category if you don't have education.

It used to be you wanted to marry up.