Thomas Sowell, as reported by David Warren…

“Perhaps the scariest aspect of our times is how many people think in talking points, rather than in terms of real world consequences.”

and

He is the opposite of the current U.S. president, who, despite a semi-fatherless start, lucked out at every stage, and has consistently traded on race. Which is not to say I’m against luck, per se, nor against exploiting one’s natural advantages. I am instead calling attention to what can be done without luck and advantages. Obama’s youthful memoirs are well-written and captivating, but narcissistic; I would recommend The Autobiography of Malcolm X for better insights into American black experience. And I would recommend Sowell’s A Personal Odyssey for something that defeats both, by refusing to politicize the personal.

We learn by suffering; Sowell knows that, and has learned. We advance by finding advantages in what at first sight are only limitations and oppressions; by turning the tables on fate. This is an individual, not a collective operation; it begins with that refusal to make an excuse. In moments Sowell reminds me almost of Solzhenitsyn, turning a Siberian prison camp into an elite finishing school of hard knocks, and graduating from it, magna cum laude.

Well said, and I envy his writing skill.