雙語智慧書·避免土生土長的缺陷

9．避免土生土長的缺陷
避免土生土長的缺陷。水流之品質(zhì)受河床土質(zhì)之好壞的影響，人之品性受出生之氣候優(yōu)劣的影響。有些人會(huì)比別人更受故鄉(xiāng)的恩澤，因?yàn)槟抢锔鼮樘烨鍤馑?。任何國家（即便是最文明的國家）都有其?dú)特的缺陷——正是這些缺陷，讓別的國家聊以自慰或是小心防范。糾正自己的缺陷，或甚至隱藏起這些缺陷，是最明智的勝利。你在同胞中鶴立雞群，就會(huì)贏得好的聲譽(yù)，出人意料的成功總是更受欽佩。其他的缺陷則源自家庭、職位、職業(yè)和所處的時(shí)代。如果所有這些缺陷都體現(xiàn)在一個(gè)人身上，并且未被小心約束，那定會(huì)讓他成為無法忍受的怪物。

9．Avoid the faults of your nation
Avoid the faults of your nation. Water shares the good or bad qualities of the strata through which it flows, and men those of the climate in which they are born. Some owe more than others to their native land, because there is a more favourable sky in the zenith. There is not a nation even among the most civilized that has not some fault peculiar to itself which other nations blame by way of boast or as a warning. It is a triumph of cleverness to correct in oneself such national failings, or even to hide them: you get great credit for being unique among your fellows, and as it is less expected of you it is esteemed the more. There are also family failings as well as faults of position, of office or of age. If these all meet in one person and are not carefully guarded against, they make an intolerable monster.