Leave men free and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire. To check the growth of inequality, liberty must be sacrificed, as in Russia after 1917. Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom; and in the end superior ability has its way. Utopias of equality are biologically doomed, and the best that the amiable philosopher can hope for is an approximiate equality of legal justice and educational opportunity. A society in which all potential ablities are allowed to develop and function will have a survival advantage in the competition of groups.
From "The Lessons of History," Will Durant, 1968.
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