Day 24'928
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"In The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528, Baldassare Castiglione describes the highly elaborate and codified manners of the perfect court citizen. And yet, Castiglione explains, the courtier must execute these gestures with what he calls sprezzatura, the capacity to make the difficult seem easy. He urges the courtier to 'practice in all things a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless.' We all admire the achievement of some unusual feat, but if it is accomplished naturally and gracefully, our admiration increases tenfold—'whereas … to labor at what one is doing and … to make bones over it, shows an extreme lack of grace and causes everything, whatever its worth, to be discounted.' (Robert Greene in "The 48 Laws of Power")