“Some of the most vocal critics of the way things are being done are people who have done nothing themselves, and whose only contributions to society are their complaints and moral exhibitionism.”

Random Thoughts http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell101705.asp, Oct. 17, 2005
2000s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Feb. 21, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Some of the most vocal critics of the way things are being done are people who have done nothing themselves, and whose …" by Thomas Sowell?
Thomas Sowell photo
Thomas Sowell 101
American economist, social theorist, political philosopher … 1930

Related quotes

Donald J. Trump photo

“Nothing is easier or more pathetic than being a critic. Because they're people that can't get the job done. But the future belongs to the dreamers, not to the critics. The future belongs to the people who follow their heart no matter what the critics say.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Liberty University commencement speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B421uhrOV-o&feature=youtu.be&t=12m34s (13 May 2017)
2010s, 2017, May

Robert Graves photo

“He was always boasting of his ancestors, as stupid people do who are aware that they have done nothing themselves to boast about.”

Source: I, Claudius (1934), Ch. 5.
Context: My tutor I have already mentioned, Marcus Porcius Cato who was, in his own estimation at least, a living embodiment of that ancient Roman virtue which his ancestors had one after the other shown. He was always boasting of his ancestors, as stupid people do who are aware that they have done nothing themselves to boast about. He boasted particularly of Cato the Censor, who of all characters in Roman history is to me perhaps the most hateful, as having persistently championed the cause of "ancient virtue" and made it identical in the popular mind with churlishness, pedantry and harshness.

Thomas Sowell photo
Arthur C. Clarke photo

“There were some things that only time could cure. Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.”

Guardian Angel, p. 220
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)
Source: Childhood's End

Nguyễn Thị Bình photo

“I have not made any mistakes. The path I'm on is absolutely right, there are just some things I could have done better to contribute to the common work.”

Nguyễn Thị Bình (1927) Vietnamese politician

"BBC phỏng vấn bà Nguyễn Thị Bình" https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/av/2009/03/090301_inv_nguyen_thi_binh_tc2 (1 March 2009)

Jeremy Corbyn photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Brendan Behan photo
Woodrow Wilson photo

“Well, nothing was ever done so systematically as nothing is being done now.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Address to fleet officers (August 11, 1917), quoted in Joseph P. Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him (1921), p. 297 https://books.google.com/books?id=f3xw1nfcn14C&vq=%22Nothing%20was%20ever%22&pg=PA297#v=onepage&q&f=false
1910s

Peter Sellers photo

“Criticism should be done by critics, and a critic should have some training and some love of the medium he is discussing. But these days, gossip-columnist training seems to be enough qualification.”

Peter Sellers (1925–1980) British film actor, comedian and singer

Statement (September 1961), as quoted in Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers (1999) by Ed Sikov, p. 168
Context: Criticism should be done by critics, and a critic should have some training and some love of the medium he is discussing. But these days, gossip-columnist training seems to be enough qualification. I suppose an ability to stand on your feet through interminable cocktail parties and swig interminable gins in between devouring masses of fried prawns may just possibly help you to understand and appreciate what a director is getting at, but for the life of me I can't see how.

Related topics