19th century Quote by Edmund S Phelps

“Blessed with riches and possibilities far beyond anything imagined by ancestors who tilled the unpredictable soil of medieval Europe, modern populations have nonetheless shown…

— Alain de Botton

“but pauperization cut into the spending power of all but the elite. Demand from great lords for luxury goods remained high, but many gentlemen…

— Robert Steven Gottfried

“We had no longing for excessive wealth: a mere competency, though earned by daily toil, so that it was reasonably sure, and free from…

— Edmund Morris

“The other-worldly meanings medieval people found in their lives were no more deluded than the modern humanist, nationalist and capitalist meanings modern people find.”

— Yuval Noah Harari

“...which recall(s) a moment in time when raw excess made them a casual aristocracy, apart from the rest of the world.”

— Andrea Lee

“It took just a piece of bread to make a starving medieval peasant joyful. How do you bring joy to a bored, overpaid and…

— Yuval Noah Harari

“From the standpoint of the upper classes, the system had many merits. They felt that what was paid out of the poor rate was…

— bertrand russell

“All around us we see a level of individual wealth unequaled since the early years of the 20th century.”

— Tony Judt

“Everywhere, rulers and elites sprang up, living off the peasants’ surplus food and leaving them with only a bare subsistence.”

— Yuval Noah Harari

“Who were these people with money, and what had they done that they should enjoy so much luxury, where others as good seemingly as…

— Theodore Dreiser

“And the unequal accumulation of wealth by the elites continued.”

— Kim Stanley Robinson

“Germans longed to be near shit, but not in it. This, as it turns out, is an excellent description of their role in the…

— Michael Lewis