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.
　　在收入相等的人之间，根本不存在社会差别，只有功绩上的差别。金钱无足轻重：品质、举止、能力至关重要。存在着伟大的人、普通的人和渺小的人，不过伟人总是那些做出大事的人，受到母亲溺爱，而父亲又每年为其留下十万钱财的白痴永远成不了伟人：渺小的人则是那些心胸狭隘、品质卑鄙的人，穷人从来没有机会，所以不会变成小人。白痴总是主张收入不均(这是他们出人头地唯一的机会)，真正的伟人则主张平等，道理即在于此。