One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain
Written byThomas SowellBorn 1930 · American economist & syndicated columnist
Sowell’s own words, from one of his syndicated “Random Thoughts” columns. The exact wording opens the “Random Thoughts” section on p. 443 of Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays (Hoover Institution Press, 2006). A newspaper was already quoting it under his name by 11 March 2004.
“One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain” Thomas Sowell, "Random Thoughts," Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays (Hoover Institution Press, 2006), p. 443
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Provenance
Where the line comes from
Work
Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays
Section
Part VIII, “Random Thoughts” — p. 443
Publisher
Hoover Institution Press, 2006
Original form
Syndicated newspaper column, in print by March 2004 (exact column date not found)
Random thoughts on the passing scene: One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain. Everything is relative. In much of coastal California, Ted Kennedy would be politically middle of the road—and, in San Francisco, right of center.
Ever Wonder Why?, p. 443
Transcribed from the Hoover Institution Press excerpt of the book’s “Random Thoughts” section. In the book, this is the first item under the heading.
11 March 2004 — The Crawford County Avalanche prints the exact line, credited to “Syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell”. This is the earliest dated appearance this research found. OCR text of the issue, Internet Archive ↗
2006 — Hoover Institution Press reprints the column line as the opening item of the “Random Thoughts” section (p. 443) in Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays, a collection “drawn from the best of his popular syndicated newspaper columns.” Hoover excerpt PDF ↗ · Hoover book announcement ↗
Online — Wikiquote does not carry the line on its main Thomas Sowell page. It sits only in the “Unsourced” list on the talk page, waiting for a citation. Talk:Thomas Sowell, Wikiquote ↗
The line comes from a Sowell newspaper column in print by 2004 and was reprinted in Ever Wonder Why? (Hoover Institution Press, 2006). Both are well after 1931, so the text is in copyright in the United States. Quoting one sentence with attribution is ordinary fair use, but the column and book are not public domain.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Right author, wrong book
Sowell did write this line. The usual mistake is the source: quote sites pin it on one of his best-known books instead of the newspaper column it came from.
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Wrong bookThe Vision of the Anointed (1995) Common mix-up
Goodreads files the line under this book (Goodreads ↗). Marvin Olasky’s tribute in WORLD also lists it among the book’s “zingers” (WORLD ↗). An Internet Archive full-text search for the phrase finds three items: a March 2004 newspaper, the 2006 Ever Wonder Why? collection and the 2011 Thomas Sowell Reader. It does not find the scanned 1995 BasicBooks edition ↗, even though that scan is in the index. The line reads as a column one-liner, not a sentence from the book.
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Wording drift“…and canonize those who complain”
Some quote lists change “canonized” to the present tense “canonize”, as in the University of Scranton’s Sowell collection (Scranton ↗). The printed text reads “canonized”.
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UnsourcedWikiquote
The line appears only in the “Unsourced” list on Wikiquote’s Thomas Sowell talk page, not on the sourced main page (Talk:Thomas Sowell ↗).
✓The wording is Sowell’s own, from his syndicated “Random Thoughts” column. It is reprinted as the first item of the “Random Thoughts” section, p. 443 of Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays (Hoover Institution Press excerpt ↗).
Context
A column one-liner that travelled
Sowell’s “Random thoughts on the passing scene” columns were strings of short, unconnected observations, so single lines were easy to lift out. Small papers did exactly that. The Crawford County Avalanche ran this sentence in its 11 March 2004 issue, between other columnists’ quotes, simply crediting “Syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell” (Internet Archive ↗).
Because the line circulated without a column date, quote sites later attached it to his most famous book, The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell’s own column collection shows where it really belongs: Hoover Institution Press reprinted it in 2006 as the opening item of the book’s “Random Thoughts” section (Hoover PDF ↗).
We have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.
What is still unknown
The date of the original newspaper column has not been pinned down. The line was in print by 11 March 2004. Sowell’s “Random Thoughts for March 2004”, dated 31 March, does not contain it, so it must come from an earlier installment.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Born 1930 · American economist, social theorist & syndicated columnist
Thomas Sowell is an American economist and social theorist, long based at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. His books include The Vision of the Anointed, and for decades he wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column. Its recurring “Random thoughts on the passing scene” installments were strings of one-line observations. Many of those lines now circulate online without any source attached.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source
Sowell, Thomas. “Random Thoughts.” In Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays, 443. Hoover Institution Press, 2006. Originally a syndicated newspaper column, in print by March 2004.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/one-of-the-sad-signs-of-our-times-is-that-we-have-demonized/