Top 34 Quotes by Thomas Piketty

When inequality gets too extreme, then it becomes useless for growth, and it can even become bad because it tends to lead to high perpetuation of inequality over time and low mobility.

I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw some conclusions from it.

Yeah, I am in favor of migration. But I am also in favor of education. But at the same time, I am in favor of progressive taxation. I think we need all of this. I think we don't have to choose one.

I think inequality is fine, as long as it is in the common interest. The problem is when it gets so extreme, when it becomes excessive.

I believe in the power of ideas, I believe in the power of books, but you have to give them time.

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

One way to have broader access to wealth is to reduce the tax on the large group and increase the tax on the very top so concentration of wealth doesn't get to extreme levels.

The United States could transform its property tax system into a progressive tax on net worth without asking permission to the rest of the world.

What I argue for is a progressive tax, a global tax, based on the taxation of private property.

I loved American universities. In many ways, they are better organized - certainly than French universities.