'...only Germans can be self-assured on the basis of an abstract idea - science, that is, an imaginary knowledge of the perfect truth. A Frenchman is self-assured because he considers himself personally, in mind as well as body, irresistibly enchanting for men as well as women. An Englishman is self-assured on the grounds that he is a citizen of the best-organized state in the world, and therefore, as an Englishman, he always knows what he must do, and knows that everything he does as an Englishman is unquestionably good. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and others. A Russian is self-assured precisely because he does not know anything and does not want to know anything, because he does not believe if possible to know anything fully. A German in self-assured worst of all, and most firmly of all, because he imagines he knows the truth, science, which he has invented himself, but which for him is the absolute truth.'
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, p.639.
