Charles Alan Murray (born January 8, 1943) is an American libertarian political scientist, author, columnist, and pundit working as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC.

He is best known for his controversial book The Bell Curve, co-authored with the late Richard Herrnstein in 1994, which discusses the role of IQ in American society.

Quotes

• Educational romanticism asks too much from students at the bottom of the intellectual pile, asks the wrong things from those in the middle, and asks too little from those at the top.
  • The Age of Educational Romanticism, The New Criterion, Thursday, May 1, 2008.

• The United States Congress, acting with large bipartisan majorities, at the urging of the President, enacted as the law of the land that all children are to be above average.
  • Regarding the No Child Left Behind Act.
  • The Age of Educational Romanticism, The New Criterion, Thursday, May 1, 2008.

• You’re out of touch with reality in that regard.
  • In response to "I believe that given the opportunity, most people could do most anything." from interviewer Deborah Solomon.
  • Questions for Charles Murray: Head of the Class, New York Times Magazine, September 19, 2008.

• People need self-respect, but self-respect must be earned -- it cannot be self-respect if it's not earned -- and the only way to earn anything is to achieve it in the face of the possibility of failing.
  • Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.
  • Crown Forum (2012); ISBN10: 0307453421; ISBN13: 9780307453426.

References