Thomas Sowell Quotes

No one is responsible under liberalism.

As for the concept of collective guilt, I personally think that it is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons.

There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.

If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.

Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest.

But there is a corollary to freedom and that's personal responsibility, and the real challenge is how you generate that personal responsibility without imposing it.

Is it government's job to make up for someone's mistakes?

Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws—but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted—when we tolerate what we know to be wrong—when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened—when we fail to speak up and speak out—we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.

Personal responsibility matters.

If you vote for evil, you are evil yourself.

A person's either responsible for themselves or we're all responsible for each other.

If I was going to act irresponsibly, the least I could do was be responsible for it.

To the extent that one is responsible for one's life, one is alone.

With freedom goes responsibility, a responsibility that can only be met by the individual himself.

I like being responsible for myself

There exists in our society widespread fear of judging…[B]ehind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done…Who has ever maintained that by judging a wrong I presuppose that I myself would be incapable of committing it?

[A] society which makes freedom its primary goal will lose it, because it has made, not responsibility, but freedom from responsibility, its purpose. When freedom is the basic emphasis, it is not responsible speech which is fostered but irresponsible speech.

Man must now assume the responsibility for his world. He can no longer shove it off on religious power.

God is responsible for the consequences of our obedience, WE are responsible for the consequences of our disobedience

Man is responsible not only for every deed, but also for every idle word and thought.

Only individuals have a sense of responsibility.

People who won't help others in trouble "because they got into trouble through their own fault" would probably not throw a lifeline to a drowning person until they learned whether that person fell in through his or her own fault or not.

To punish the individual for the sins of the system makes no sense. We're responsible for changing it, yes. But we can't actually invent another universe, so we have to start where we are.

Responsibility cannot be shared.

Few are guilty, but all are responsible.