Replies

The Spanish Jesuit, Baltasar Gracian, S.J., wrote a book of aphorisms called The Art of Worldly Wisdom in the 1600's. #9 out of the 350:

"9 Avoid the defects of your country. Water shares the good and bad qualities of the beds through which it runs; people share those of the region where they are born. Some owe more than others to their mother country or city, for they were born under favorable skies. No country, not even the most refined, has ever escaped some innate defect or other, and these weaknesses are seized on by neighboring countries as defense or consolation. It is a triumph to correct, or at least dissimulate, such national faults. By doing so, you will be revered as unqiue among your people; for what is least expected is most valued. Other defects are caused by one’s lineage, condition, occupation, and by the times. If all these defects come together in one person, and no care is taken to foresee and correct them, they produce an intolerable monster."