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Notes -
Context has some effect, but I’ve always been very struck by the (Greek?) phrase: Men travel to escape from themselves, but it does not work. For wherever you go, there you are.
In my experience, I would say that one’s own personality is somewhat more malleable than one realises and also far, far less.
Edit: the specific phrasing is more recent, but I’m sure I read something to that effect in Seneca or some other classical source.
Sure, but where do you come from? Your genetics, sure, but also you are the product of your experiences, of how you grew up. It's hard to contend that there is no impact from formative experiences throughout your life on personality.
No, but it seems quite likely to me that your experiences are filtered through your base nature in such a way that they become really quite deterministic.
Some people are just naturally cheerful, and can take tragedy on the chin without being marked much by it, apart from a brief shadow if you explicitly bring it up. Other people seem to have holes that is waiting for a formative experience to fill it - someone with an addictive personality might end up having trouble with sports gambling, drugs, porn or booze, but something is going to take that spot. The more delicate among us are going to have something bad happen to them eventually. Etc.
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