Wilt thou break this statue because it is not wholly composed of gold and diamonds?

Voltaire tells how an angel sent Babouc to report on whether the city of Persepolis should be destroyed; Babouc goes, and is horrified with the vices he discovers; but after a time “he began to grow fond of a city the inhabitants of which were polite, affable and beneficent, though they were fickle, slanderous and vain. He was much afraid that Persepolis would be condemned. He was even afraid to give in his account. This he did, however, in the following manner. He caused a little statue, composed of different metals, of earth and of stones (the most precious and the most vile) to be cast by one of the best founders of the city, and carried it to the angel. ‘Wilt thou break, said he, ‘this pretty statue because it is not wholly composed of gold and diamonds?' The angel resolved to think no more of destroying Persepolis, but to leave “the world as it goes.” After all, when one tries to change institutions without having changed the nature of men, that unchanged nature will soon resurrect those institutions.

Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (1926).

We must try our level best to understand our history, including -- perhaps even especially -- its ugly moments. We must not let the good deeds blind us to the bad. But neither should the bad deeds of some of our forebears blot out the good and even great deeds of others. A statute, though a mere hulk of rock or metal pulled from the earth's crust, masquerades as a patient philosopher, a heroic soldier, a noble leader. Does the statue, then, pretending at more than it is, tell a lie?

Surely not. We wring the good from base and ordinary things, even vile things. Neither the world nor we its inhabitants are composed of gold and diamonds only, but of things base, and ordinary, and even vile, yet mixed in with something precious. That which is precious is small in amount. And we may wish for more. But history shows we are not likely to get it.

Shall we break, the establishment media and politicians ask us, these pretty statutes because they are not wholly composed of gold and diamonds?

No, must be our response. We will not let you break them.