Individuality is a far more important thing than nationality, and in any given man deserves a thousand-fold more consideration. And since you cannot speak of national character without referring to large numbers of people, it is impossible to be both loud in your praises and honest. National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. If we become disgusted with one, we praise another, until we get disgusted with this one too. Every nation mocks at other nations, and they are all right.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Individuality is a far more important thing than nationality, and in any given man deserves a thousand-fold more consideration. And since you cannot speak of national character without referring to large numbers of people, it is impossible to be both loud in your praises and honest. National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. If we become disgusted with one, we praise another, until we get disgusted with this one too. Every nation mocks at other nations, and they are all right." in the context of "Arthur Schopenhauer, ["The Wisdom of Life-IV;Position:Section 2- Pride". (1851).Translated by T. Bailey Saunders. (pg.35 in "The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims", Digireads.com Publishing, 2008)]." to mean that wisdom is timeless.