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You can only confiscate the wealth that exists at a given moment. You cannot confiscate future wealth - and that future wealth is less likely to be produced when people see that it is going to be confiscated.

Thomas Sowell

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Thomas Sowell
Age: 94
Born: 1930
Born: June 30
Economist
University Teacher
Gastonia
North Carolina
People
Future
Confiscated
Less
Confiscate
Moment
Produced
Given
Economics
Moments
Likely
Political
Exists
Cannot
Wealth
Going
Philosophy

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I wish that some way could be found to add up all the staggering costs imposed on millions of ordinary people, just so a relative handful of self-righteous environmental cultists can go around feeling puffed up with themselves.
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In the long run, the greatest weapon of mass destruction is stupidity.
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The charge is often made against the intelligentsia and other members of the anointed that their theories and the policies based on them lack common sense. But the very commonness of common sense makes it unlikely to have any appeal to the anointed. How can they be wiser and nobler than everyone else while agreeing with everyone else?
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Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can't stop with just one.
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Extrapolations are the last refuge of a groundless argument.
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Barack Obama's vision of America is one in which a President of the United States can fire the head of General Motors, tell banks how to bank, control the medical system and take charge of all sorts of other activities for which neither he nor other politicians have any expertise or experience.
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Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God.
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There are only two economists in Congress and hundreds of lawyers. Does that explain why the government is in such a mess?
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Economics is concerned with what emerges, not what anyone intended.
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If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.
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The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights.'
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