On History

There's a great rendering of Dubrovnik's history in Dubrovnik: A History by Robin Harris. Two young nobles meet in the dead of night, one saying to another:
- Why are you staring at me?
- I'm looking at you because God gave me eyes to look at another on equal terms.
And the guy punches him in the face. Of course, what's really funny is that brawls in Dubrovnik begin for the same reason almost 400 years later.

As for taste, a painter is described wanting to introduce a more daring, artistically, style in conservative Ragusa. And he failed. But the brilliant Mr Harris comments:
"I'm glad this did not put the old master down, for he was arrested 20 years later for singing lewd tunes."