Without virtue there is no such thing as a great man; without rights there is no such thing as a great nation, and, one might almost say, no such thing as society, for what is a group of rational and intelligent beings held together solely by force?
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1835-1840
The impossibility of any individual or small group conceiving of all the possibilities, let alone evaluating their merits, is the great argument against central governmental planning and against arrangements such as professional monopolies that limit the possibilities of experimentation.