Thomas Piketty Quotes

• When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems quite likely to do again in the twenty-first, capitalism automatically generates arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that radically undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based.

  Thomas Piketty

  Growth, Democracy, Society

  Thomas Piketty (2017). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.1, Harvard University Press

  84 Copy quote

• Wealth is so concentrated that a large segment of society is virtually unaware of its existence.

  Thomas Piketty

  Wealth, Existence

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.259, Harvard University Press

  43 Copy quote

• We want capitalism and market forces to be the slave of democracy rather than the opposite.

  Thomas Piketty

  Opposites, Democracy, Want

  "Economist says U.S. inequality reaching "spectacular" heights". Interview with Alain Sherter, www.cbsnews.com. June 5, 2014.

  34 Copy quote

• No hypocrisy is too great when economic and financial elites are obliged to defend their interest.

  Thomas Piketty

  Hypocrisy, Financial, Economic

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.514, Harvard University Press

  25 Copy quote

• When inequality gets to an extreme, it is completely useless for growth.

  Thomas Piketty

  Growth, Useless, Inequality

  "French economist Thomas Piketty compares US economy to Europe in the Gilded Age". Interview with The Associated Press, www.oregonlive.com. April 23, 2014.

  29 Copy quote

• It's important to realize that innovation and growth in itself are not sufficient to moderate inequality of wealth.

  Thomas Piketty

  Innovation, Growth, Important

  "French economist Thomas Piketty compares US economy to Europe in the Gilded Age". Associated Press Interview, www.oregonlive.com. April 23, 2014.

  33 Copy quote

• Our modern democratic ideal is based on the hope that inequalities will be based on merit more than inheritance or luck.

  Thomas Piketty

  Democratic Ideals, Luck, Inheritance

  "French economist Thomas Piketty compares US economy to Europe in the Gilded Age". Associated Press Interview, www.oregonlive.com. April 23, 2014.

  27 Copy quote

• Over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills.

  Thomas Piketty

  Skills, Long, Favors

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.22, Harvard University Press

  25 Copy quote

• What was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century of industrial growth, the condition of the masses was still just as miserable as before, and all lawmakers could do was prohibit factory labor by children under the age of eight?

  Thomas Piketty

  Children, Eight, Innovation

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.8, Harvard University Press

  16 Copy quote

• The discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences.

  Thomas Piketty

  Passion, Discipline, Historical

  "Capital in the Twenty-First Century". Book by Thomas Piketty, March 10, 2014.

  31 Copy quote

• At the heart of every major political upheaval lies a fiscal revolution.

  Thomas Piketty

  Lying, Heart, Political

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.493, Harvard University Press

  19 Copy quote

• Indeed, the distribution of wealth is too important an issue to be left to economists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers.

  Thomas Piketty

  Issues, Important, Distribution Of Wealth

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.2, Harvard University Press

  24 Copy quote

• I don't think there is any serious evidence that we need to be paying people more than 100 times the average wage in order to get high-performing managers.

  Thomas Piketty

  Thinking, Average, Order

  "French economist Thomas Piketty compares US economy to Europe in the Gilded Age". Interview with The Associated Press, www.oregonlive.com. April 23, 2014.

  17 Copy quote

• The principal mechanism for convergence at the international as well as the domestic level is the diffusion of knowledge.

  Thomas Piketty

  Levels, Wells, Diffusion

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.71, Harvard University Press

  9 Copy quote

• The democratic ideal has always been related to a moderate level of inequality. I think one big reason why electoral democracy flourished in 19th century America better than 19th century Europe is because you had more equal distribution of wealth in America.

  Thomas Piketty

  Thinking, Europe, Democratic Ideals

  "French economist Thomas Piketty compares US economy to Europe in the Gilded Age". The Associated Press Interview, www.oregonlive.com. April 23, 2014.

  10 Copy quote

• Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the United States belongs to Japanese and German investors. The fear of getting into such a predicament is so strong today that fantasy often outstrips reality. The reality is that inequality with respect to capital is a far greater domestic issue than it is an international one.

  Thomas Piketty

  Strong, Reality, California

  18 Copy quote

• There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and intellectual world or by political and financial elites. Hence they must set aside their contempt for other disciplines and their absurd claim to greater scientific legitimacy, despite the fact that they know almost nothing about anything.

  Thomas Piketty

  Discipline, Political, Intellectual

  Thomas Piketty (2017). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.41, Harvard University Press

  12 Copy quote

• I certainly agree that capital is not a one-dimensional object, and that the return on capital takes very different forms for different assets or different people.

  Thomas Piketty

  People, Different, Return

  15 Copy quote

• Economists have put themselves in a position where what they are doing is supposed to be impossible to understand for outsiders, so they dont even talk - sometimes not even with their girlfriend or boyfriend or friends - about what they are doing.

  Thomas Piketty

  Girlfriend, Outsiders, Impossible

  13 Copy quote

• We know too little about global wealth dynamics, so we need international transmission of bank information.

  Thomas Piketty

  Needs, Dynamics, Littles

  4 Copy quote

• It's not Utopian to believe that we can create a global registry of financial assets so we know who owns what in different countries.

  Thomas Piketty

  Country, Believe, Different

  "Inequality will worsen in America unless… Piketty’s Rx". Interview with Paul Solman, www.pbs.org. May 12, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• Refusing to deal with numbers rarely serves the interests of the least well-off.

  Thomas Piketty

  Numbers, Interest, Deals

  Thomas Piketty (2014). “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, p.577, Harvard University Press

  15 Copy quote

• For far too long economists have sought to define themselves in terms of their supposedly scientific methods. In fact, those methods rely on an immoderate use of mathematical models, which are frequently no more than an excuse for occupying the terrain and masking the vacuity of the content.

  Thomas Piketty

  Long, Use, Scientific Method

  7 Copy quote

• Without precisely defined sources, methods, and concepts, it is possible to see absolutely everything and its opposite.

  Thomas Piketty

  Opposites, Source, Method

  7 Copy quote

• The U.S. is the country that invented progressive taxation of income and of inherited wealth in the 1910s and 20s.

  Thomas Piketty

  Country, Progressive Taxation, Income

  "Economist says U.S. inequality reaching "spectacular" heights". Interview with Alain Sherter, www.cbsnews.com. June 5, 2014.

  8 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Joseph Stiglitz

Paul Krugman

John Maynard Keynes

Elizabeth Warren

Robert Reich

Jean Tirole

Greg Mankiw

Karl Marx