An old quote

I ran across this bit as a highschool kid and instantly loved it:

Throughout history, abject poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded--here and there, now and then--are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people.

Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into poverty. This is known as "bad luck."

-- Robert A. Heinlein