Note 212 — Chapter XXI · Fundamental Laws of Socialistic Society.

“The force of rivalry that leads to supreme efforts to win the praise and admiration of others, has been shown by experience to be a useful one wherever persons compete with one another, even in regard to frivolous matters and such matters from which the public derives no benefit. But a rivalry as to who can best serve the common welfare, is a sort of competition that Socialists do not repudiate.”—John Stuart Mill, “Political Economy.” Every society, every organization of persons having the same aims and a common cause, also furnishes many examples of a nobler endeavor that leads to no material success but to a purely ideal one. The persons vieing with each other are indeed impelled by the ambition of serving the common cause and of winning recognition. But this sort of ambition is a virtue since it serves the common good and at the same time gives satisfaction to the individual. Ambition is harmful only when it is satisfied at the expense of others or to the detriment of society.