Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.

Obstinacy

I believe that obstinacy, or the dread of control and discipline, arises not so much from self-willedness, as from a conscious defect of voluntary power; as foolhardiness is not seldom the disguise of conscious timidity.

Obstinacy is an affection immovable, fixed to will, abandoning reason, which is engendered of pride: that is to say, when a man esteemeth so much himself above any other that he reputeth his own wit only to be in perfection, and contemneth all other counsel.

Obstinacy in opinions holds the dogmatist in the chains of error, without hope of emancipation.

There is something in obstinacy which differs from every other passion. Whenever it fails, it never recovers, but either breaks like iron, or crumbles sulkily away, like a fractured arch. Most other passions have their periods of fatigue and rest, their sufferings and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first wound is mortal.

Firmness or stiffness of the mind is not from adherence to truth, but submission to prejudice.

Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy: we do not easily believe beyond what we see.