“Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for?”

Source: Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (2011), p.397

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update April 21, 2026. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of…" by Thomas Sowell?

Thomas Sowell101

American economist, social theorist, political philosopher … 1930

John Rawls book A Theory of Justice

Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter III, Section 30, pg. 190

“It's not about what I want. It's about what's fair!”

movie The Dark Knight

Character Harvey Dent

“Democratic socialism means that in a democratic, civilized society the wealthiest people and the largest corporations must pay their fair share of taxes.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

"Bernie Sanders Speech On Democratic Socialism" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_8R6PgGcTw, (19 November 2015). <br class="br">2010s, 2015

“Everything is what it is: liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or culture, or human happiness or a quiet conscience.”

Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas

Five Essays on Liberty (2002), Two Concepts of Liberty (1958)

“People won’t share or play fair if you hit them.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1986)
Context: A six-year-old will not understand that “By and large it has been demonstrated that violence is counterproductive to the constructive interaction of persons and societies.” True. But a child can better understand that the rule out in the world and in the school is the same: Don’t hit people. Bad things happen. The child must understand this rule is connected to the first rule: People won’t share or play fair if you hit them.

“Dear ruins! Many a year has been closed, many a month, holy and unhallowed, has elapsed, since I exchanged tender vows with their fair inhabitants!”

Labīd (560–661) Sahabah and poet

Translated by C. J. Lyall, quoted in Arabian Poetry, p. 41 https://archive.org/details/arabianpoetryfo00clougoog/page/n127/mode/2up <br class="br">Couplets

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.”

Lester Bangs (1948–1982) American music critic and journalist