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National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

— Arthur Schopenhauer Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)

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Notes from Wikiquote

As quoted by Wolfgang Pauli in a letter to Abraham Pais (17 August 1950) published in The Genius of Science (2000) by Abraham Pais, p. 242

Variants

Every nation criticizes every other one — and they are all correct.

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The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.

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Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

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Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Arthur Schopenhauer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.