Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction ofmerit. Money is nothing: character, conduct, and capacity are everything. There would be greatpeople and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be those who had donegreat things, and never the idiots whose mothers had spoiled them and whose fathers had leftthem a hundred thousand a year; and the little would be persons of small minds and mean char-acters, and not poor persons who had never had a chance. That is why idiots are always in favourof inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favour of equality.
在收入相等的人之間,根本不存在社會差別,只有功績上的差別。金錢無足輕重:品質、舉止、能力至關重要。存在著偉大的人、普通的人和渺小的人,不過偉人總是那些做出大事的人,受到母親溺愛,而父親又每年為其留下十萬錢財的白癡永遠成不了偉人:渺小的人則是那些心胸狹隘、品質卑鄙的人,窮人從來沒有機會,所以不會變成小人。白癡總是主張收入不均(這是他們出人頭地唯一的機會),真正的偉人則主張平等,道理即在于此。