Thomas Sowell Quotes

Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses. Every single time.

To 'choose' dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.

He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

Nothing shows up the difference between the things said or read, so much as the daily experience of it.

The logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

We do not consider our principles as dogmas contained in books that are said to come from heaven. We derive our inspiration, not from heaven, or from an unseen world, but directly from life.

Values are faithfully applied to the facts before us, while ideology overrides whatever facts call theory into question.

To govern well, one must see things as they are.

On Pragmatism: It's all very well in theory but it doesn't work in practice

Life had stepped into the place of theory.

Judgment is forced upon us by experience

Doubt is merely a thought. When experience proves it wrong, it will quickly go away.

The curse of the intelligentsia is their ability to rationalize and re-define. Ordinary people, lacking that gift, are forced to face reality.

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

Woe to him whose beliefs play fast and loose with the order which realities follow in his experience; they will lead him nowhere or else make false connections

The biggest problem we have as human beings is that we confuse our beliefs with reality.

Logic doesn't apply to the real world.

Why is it people who want the truth never believe it when they hear it?

Economists are people who wonder if what works in reality can also work in theory.

It is however always important to remember that the ability to see things in their correct perspective may be, and often is, divorced from the ability to reason correctly and vice versa. That is why a man may be a very good theorist and yet talk absolute nonsense.

There is such a difference between life and theory.

You want the truth, of course. You want me to put two and two together. But two and two doesn’t necessarily get you the truth. Two and two equals a voice outside the window. Two and two equals the wind. The living bird is not its labeled bones.

The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality "ought to be."