Envy

The masses do not like those who surpass them in any regard. The average man envies and hates those who are different.

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, p. 123

What pushes the masses into the camp of socialism is, even more than the illusion that socialism will make them richer, the expectation that it will curb all those who are better than they themselves are. . . . There will no longer be any room left for innovators and reformers.

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, p. 123

Nobody seems to doubt that to prevent some people from acquiring riches is a policy extremely beneficial for the rest of society. Everybody is sincerely convinced that technological progress is an act of God not conditioned by the methods of social organization. Enjoying all the new products which free enterprise provides, they are tormented by one thought only: that some people have become rich in creating these new things.

Economic Freedom and Interventionism, pp. 231–32