Utopia

and ensure that nothing false is included in this work of mine, nor anything true left out. And I do not know if it would be better to show him the book itself. For no one else is as capable of correcting any errors, and he himself cannot perform this task unless he has read through what I have written. Furthermore, in this way you will understand whether he receives the fact that I am writing this work gladly or with reluctance. If he has decided to commit his own labors to writing, perhaps he would not want me to do so. And I, for my part, certainly would not want to steal the flower and charm of the novelty of his history by publishing the republic of the Utopians through my own efforts. Although, to tell the truth, I have not yet sufficiently decided with myself The ungrateful judgments of men. whether I will publish it at all. For the palates of mortals are so varied, the temperaments of some so surly, the minds so ungrateful, and the judgments so absurd, that it seems much happier for those who, pleasant and cheerful, indulge their own spirits, than for those who wear themselves out with cares to publish something that others, either fastidious or ungrateful, may find neither useful nor pleasurable. Most people are ignorant of letters, while many despise them. A barbarian rejects as harsh anything that is not purely barbaric. Smatterers those with superficial knowledge despise as trivial anything that is not overflowing with obscure words.