Amartya Sen Quotes

Members of the middle class do not have to worry about falling off $250,000 sailboats because they don't have $250,000 sailboats to fall off of.

A poor person in my community doesn't see a person driving a Tesla and say, 'That benefits me.'

Working-class people don't tend to be wooed by celebrity.

The majority decision constitutionalizes a distinction between a red leather pouch and a paper bag that is necessarily based at least in some part on economic and class differences and perceptions.

It's quite confusing being one of the less wealthy people at a posh place.

Growing up on, say, the Upper East Side, you're so isolated. If you go to the Hamptons every weekend, you never talk to a construction worker, and the construction worker would never talk to you.

Short of genius a rich man cannot even imagine poverty.

And living in Australia I am relatively well off.

I just think the whole discussion of class is wrong. It's not what we do here in America. I don't think there's anything called 'middle class values' that are different from the values of other people in this country.

When I was a child, I didn't fly - we couldn't afford to fly. Flying was for rich people.

Poor people have more fun than rich people, they say; and I notice it's the rich people who keep saying it.

Class - or the economic status of individuals - is evident in all societies, some very well stratified by a rigid caste system determined by birth.

I came from a rural background, and I didn't come in contact with a lot of wealthy people.

We know that in our free market economy some will prosper more than others. What we don't accept is the idea that some folks won't even get a chance.

The rich swell up with pride, the poor from hunger.

Of course, in the United States, which at the time was a very young country, there were also class distinctions. They weren't as pronounced, but they quickly evolved as well.

I'm the son of a former billionaire, but I'm just a working man.

It's the middle class that feels the luxury of being able to have causes.

If you're poor and you do something stupid, you're nuts. If you're rich and do something stupid, you're eccentric.

THE rich possess ample means to realize any theory they may chuse to adopt in the education of their children, regardless of the cost; but it is not so with him whose Subsistence is derived from industry.

The affluent society makes no meaningful distinction between luxury and necessity.

The rich don’t want the poor to get ahead of them.

The capitalist society is very disorderly. The variance is great and may be on the basis of ability, luck, all sorts of happenstance, external circumstances. That upsets people's sense of order.

Rich people are powerful in wealth but few in votes.

The poor should not have to learn how to be frugal and the rich should not have to learn to be extravagant.