Theognis of Megara (6th cent)

Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind;
Accommodate your humour to mankind
And human nature-take it as you find!
A mixture of ingredients, good or bad,
Such are we all, the best that can be had.
The best are found defective, and the rest,
For common use, are equal to the best.
Suppose it had been otherwise decreed-
How could the business of the world proceed?

Fairly examined, truly understood,
No man is wholly bad, nor wholly good,
Nor uniformly wise. In every case,
Habit and accident, and time, and place
Affect us:-'tis the nature of the race!