Does culture make us cultured?

 If we describe someone as cultured, we mean a person who has good manners, is well educated and knows a lot about arts. These definitions are right however, we miss others very important traits.

In my opinion, cultured people must satisfy the following conditions:

They respect human personality, and therefore they are always kind, gentle, polite, and ready to give in to others.

They have sympathy not for beggars and cats alone. Their heart aches for what the eyes do not see. They sit up at night in order to help people.

They respect the property of others, and therefore pay their debts.

They are sincere, and hate lying. They do not lie even in small things. A lie is insulting to the listener and puts him in a lower position in the eyes of the speaker. They do not pose, they behave in the street as they do at home, and they do not show off before their humbler comrades. Out of respect for other people’s ears they more often keep silent than talk.

They do not disparage themselves to rouse compassion. They do not play on the strings of other people’s hearts so that they may sigh and make much of them.

They have no shallow vanity. The truly talented always keep in obscurity among the crowd, as far as possible from advertisement.

If they have a talent, they respect it. They sacrifice to it rest, women, wine, vanity. They are proud of their talent. Besides, they are fastidious.

They develop the aesthetic feeling in themselves. They cannot go to sleep in their clothes; see cracks full of bugs on the walls, breathe bad air, walk on a floor that has been spat upon, and cook their meals over an oil stove. They seek as far as possible to restrain and ennoble the sexual instinct. What they want in a woman is not a bedfellow. They want especially, if they are artists, freshness, elegance, humanity, and the capacity for motherhood. They drink only when they are free, on occasion. They want a healthy mind in a healthy body].

Thanks to Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)