Stopping illegal immigration would mean that wages would have to rise to a level where Americans would want the jobs currently taken by illegal aliens.
Thomas SowellRead
Out of every hundred new ideas ninety-nine or more will probably be inferior to the traditional responses which they propose to replace. No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for those are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Innovation often struggles against established traditions, which are the result of collective experience over time.
This quote by Thomas Sowell emphasizes the importance of traditional responses and customs, suggesting that while new ideas may seem appealing, they are often less valuable than the time-tested wisdom of past generations. Sowell warns that no individual, no matter how knowledgeable, can fully understand and evaluate the intricate tapestry of societal customs and institutions that have emerged from centuries of historical experience.
Themes
TraditionInnovationWisdomSocietyHistory
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the value of innovation versus tradition in a business meeting.
More from Thomas Sowell
All quotes →Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks.
Thomas SowellRead
One of the reasons for conspiracy theories is an assumption that people in high places always know what they are doing. When they do something that makes no sense, devious reasons are imagined by conspiracy theorists, when in fact it may be due to plain old ignorance and incompetence.
Thomas SowellRead
You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.
Thomas SowellRead
The real problem, both in discussions of mass shootings and in discussions of gun control, is that too many people are too committed to a vision to allow mere facts to interfere with their beliefs, and the sense of superiority that those beliefs give them.
Thomas SowellRead
Why is history important? Without history, many people have no idea how many of today's half-baked ideas have been tried, again and again - and have repeatedly led to disaster. Most of these ideas are not new. They are just being recycled with re-treaded rhetoric.
Thomas SowellRead
Similar quotes
I'm always trying to tackle subjects that tax me and make me think. That's the key to staying young at heart. The brain has to be exercised the same as the rest of the body.
Clint EastwoodRead
Don't let circumstances distress you. Rather, look for the will of God for your life to be revealed in and through those circumstances.
Billy GrahamRead
It's a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research & study, the best advice I can give people is to be a little kinder to each other.
Aldous HuxleyRead
Attention is the vital thing and there is no tension in attention. It just happens to be a similar word. It's not concentration or straining. Attention has the openness of a young child not yet dominated by the conceptual mind.
Eckhart TolleRead
It now seemed to me that all my other guesses had been only self-pleasing dreams spun out of my wishes, but now I was awake.
C. S. LewisRead
There two things that are infinite, human stupidity and the universe, I don't know about the universe
Albert EinsteinRead