A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1522 J. SKELTON Works (1843) II. 43 An one eyed man is Well syghted when He is amonge blynde men. 1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 469 In the kingdome of blind men the one ey’d is king. 1830 J. L. BURCKHARDT Arabic Proverbs 34 The one­eyed person is a beauty in the country of the blind. 1904 H. G. WELLS in Strand Apr. 405 Through his thoughts ran this old proverb.. ‘In the Country of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is king.’ 1937 W. H. SAUMAREZ SMITH Letter 7 Mar. in Young Man’s Country (1977) ii. You exaggerate the alleged compliment paid to me by the Bengal Govt. in wanting to retain my services. ‘In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king.’ 2002 B. MONAHAN Sceptred Isle Club i. 9 His success with crime-solving suggested an extraordinary intelligence, but he could never know from his limited vantage point in provincial Brunswick whether he was merely the one-eyed man in the land of the blind and the Jekyl Island Club solution a fluke. "ignorance; rulers and ruled

Happy is the COUNTRY which has no history
Carlyle (see quot. 1864) attributed this observation to the French political philosopher Montesquieu (1689-1755). Cf. 1740 B. FRANKLIN Poor Richard’s Almanack (Feb.) Happy that Nation,—fortunate that age, whose history is not diverting.

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  1807 T. JEFFERSON Letter 29 Mar. in Writings (1904) XI. 182 Blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say. 1860 G. ELIOT Mill on Floss VI. iii. The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history. 1864 CARLYLE Frederick the Great IV. XVI. i. Happy the people whose annals are blank in history. 1957 V. BRITTAIN Testament of Experience I. iv. Quoting the familiar dictum: ‘Happy is the country which has no history,’ I remarked that I belonged, like Edward VIII, to a generation which was still on the early side of middle age but had already seen almost more history than any generation could bear. 1981 Nature 23 Apr. 698 An old proverb.. tells us that ‘happy is the nation that has no history.’.. DNA.. is the unhappiest of molecules, for it is the subject of innumerable biographies. "blessings; history
  

country see also you can take the BOY out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy; GOD made the country, and man made the town; a NATION without a language is a nation without a heart; OTHER times, other manners; a PROPHET is not without honour save in his own country.