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"Those who succeed in the race for wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent."

— Alfred Russel Wallace

Those Who Succeed In The Race

Those who succeed in the race for wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent.

— Alfred Russel Wallace
intelligence society wealth

About this quote

Alfred Russel Wallace published this critique in "Human Selection" in Popular Science Monthly (1890), arguing that economic competition did not select for superior human qualities but rather for ruthlessness and luck. Wallace was a committed socialist and land reformer who believed unchecked capitalism produced social conditions at odds with genuine human progress. His willingness to apply evolutionary reasoning to social criticism set him apart from many of his scientific peers.

Source

Human Selection, Popular Science Monthly, 1890

It suddenly flashed upon me that this self-acting process would necessarily improve the race, because in every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the superior would remain.
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