Utopia

cheerful, indulging their own nature, than for those who wear themselves out with cares to produce something that others, either fastidious or ungrateful, might find useful or pleasurable. Very many do not know letters, and many despise them. A barbarian rejects as harsh whatever is not clearly barbarian. Smatterers reject as trivial whatever is not overflowing with obsolete words. To some, only the old things please; to most, only their own. This one is so sour that he does not admit jokes; that one is so insensitive that he cannot endure wit. Some are so snub-nosed The Latin text uses "simos" (snub-nosed/flat-nosed), which in classical allusion implies those lacking a "nasus" (nose), which the Romans used as a metaphor for good taste or the ability to smell out irony and wit. that they fear every nose, as if it were water bitten by a rabid dog. Others are so fickle that they approve one thing while sitting and another while standing. These sit in taverns, and between drinks, they judge the talents of writers and condemn them with great authority, however they please, plucking at each author with their own writings, as if pulling out hairs, while they themselves are safe, and, as the saying goes,

They call men "snub-nosed" who have no nose [i.e., no wit or taste].