Thomas Sowell Quotes

The only true allegiance a politician has is to his own re-election.

My belief is the majority of people in politics are just interested in pursuing this career in politics, and doing what's necessary to get themselves re-elected. And if that happens to coincide with the public good, great. But if it doesn't, the public good loses out.

People’s political agenda is not clear to themselves in most cases.

A politician cannot separate his own personal advantage from his own political advantage.

You've got just one year when Congress treats you right. Then they start worrying about themselves.

Most politicians make decisions based on their own best interest rather than the greater good.

I think maybe the people in elected positions are more interested in preserving their jobs than in doing the best job possible.

Legislators are interested in their pet projects, getting re-elected, and popularity contests.

I know that sometimes politics creates situations in which people want to say particular things for political reasons.

There is very little chance of the modern Republican Party putting the national interest above their own partisan interests.

Both parties act in their political self-interest. Indeed, that's the purpose of a political party. But unlike Democrats, at least Republicans are honest about it.

Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters.

This is President Obama’s number one political agenda item because he knows we will never again have a Republican president, ever, if amnesty goes into effect.

When it comes to partisan politics, everyone is a hypocrite. And all they care about is whether it hurts or helps them ... Is it good or bad for the Democrats? Is it good or bad for the Republicans? Is it good or bad for Jews, or good or bad for blacks, or is it good or bad for women? Is it good or bad for men? Is it good or bad for gays? That's the way people think about issues today. There is very little discussion of enduring principles.

These acts of terrorism are being committed by American citizens in this particular instance at a Planned Parenthood site, certain with a political agenda, fueled by the extremist rhetoric that we've seen from some on the hill and from people all across the country as it relates to a woman's right to choose.

You propound a complicated arithmetical problem: say cubing a number containing four digits. Give me a slate and half an hour's time, and I can produce a wrong answer.

President Obama said he is going to use the Gulf disaster to push a new energy bill through Congress. How about using the Gulf disaster to fix the Gulf disaster?

What the left have done is screw up everybody's human nature where the opposite sex is concerned. Now nobody knows who they're supposed to be, where they're supposed to be, what they can and can't say, because who are the police in all of this? American leftists and liberals who have as their objective political agenda victory in every aspect of life.

Almost all education has a political motive.

My films ought to be judged on whether they're entertaining or good as films, but not on the political view necessarily. I'm trying to be morally responsible and no more. I don't have an agenda I'm trying to push.

A political problem thought of in military terms eventually becomes a military problem.

I meet with Satya [Nadella] what probably amounts to four or five times a year - either to brainstorm something or just as a shareholder, we'll sit down and chat. That's always quite helpful for me and hopefully him in terms of thinking things through. I still have a number of friends and colleagues who occasionally want to brainstorm or chat about something, and that's always fun.

If the way to do good to my country were to render myself popular, I could easily do it. But extravagant popularity is not the road to public advantage.

The traits in career politicians the public detests most are produced when ego triumphs over principle.

Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.