Thomas Sowell Quotes

No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft, and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong.

Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt.

After your first victory as New York Governor you gave jobs worth $3,000 to $20,000 per year to your friends and compatriots, and I returned to my garret and my crust, and my desperate battle with pecuniary obligations.

In a country with glaring evidence of persuasive corruption and impunity at all tiers of government, it is morally unjustifiable to amputate the hands of these impoverished people for petty theft, in the name of Puritanism.

A person who steals a chicken might go to jail … but a person who steals millions is welcome to be a member of the Federation Council or the Duma.

Inasmuch as great wealth is an instrument which is uniformly used to extort from others their property, it ought to be taken away from its possessor, on the same principle that a sword or a pistol may be wrested from a robber, who shall undertake to accomplish the same effect in a different manner.

I’d knock on your door for only one reason—to take your money.

Ukraine gives corruption a bad name…. The Ukrainian politicians have ripped off everything in the country that was not nailed down, and then they turned to the stuff that was nailed down.

Corruption is... the result of a decadent political regime. We are absolutely convinced that this evil is the main cause of social and economic inequality, and also that corruption is to blame for the violence in our country.

Income inequality and government corruption are both unfortunate realities in the United States.

Vote for me. I'll use my office to take another American's money and give it to you.

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Israel's middle class is paying for those below it, and that's fine, but also for those who are above it, and that's very wrong.

Rarely do political contributions lead to direct quid pro quo transactions - donations for votes - and those that cross this line normally get caught.

Money doesn't just buy a nice car; it also buys better education or healthcare. Increasingly, it can buy impunity from justice, a pliant media, favorable laws, business advantage, and even elections. This, in turn, perpetuates the policies that allow a tiny elite to accumulate ever more wealth at the expense of the majority.

What type of politics is the Congress practising, wherein its leaders commit the sin of looting money meant for the welfare of pregnant women and poor children?

Corruption in government is an overwhelming problem.

Where the grifter is shameless, the grafter shrinks from exposure, which could only endanger the racket. He is greedy but not creatively ambitious. He toils in mundane self-dealing, insider trading, bribe taking, witness tampering, and other forms of workaday corruption.

I believe we stand strongly against having the tax code used to make the income disparity in America any worse than it already.

In government, the scum rises to the top.

It's wrong for someone to confiscate your money, give it to someone else, and call that "compassion."

Instead, we have found ourselves gasping for air in a sea of corruption, dysfunction, environmental degradation, waste, disenchantment and inequality—and the harder we compete, the more unequal we become.

Government Steals from the needy and gives to the greedy

Patronage is almost a wicked word. By itself it could well-nigh defeat democracy.

For government to give, it must first take away.