Website owner: James Miller
An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an error it is like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty. Whatsoever he lays hold of, like a drowning man, he never loses, though it do but help to sink him the sooner. His ignorance is abrupt and inaccessible, impregnable both by art and nature, and will hold out to the last, though it has nothing but rubbish to defend. Butler Obstinacy is will asserting itself without being able to justify itself. It is persistence without a reasonable motive. It is the tenacity of self-love substituted for that of reason and conscience. Amiel Obstinacy and contradiction are like a paper kite: they are only kept up so long as you pull against them. Obstinacy is the strength of the weak. Firmness founded upon principle, upon truth and right, order and law, duty and generosity, is the obstinacy of sages. Lavater Obstinacy and vehemency of opinion are the surest proofs of stupidity. Barton Obstinacy and heat in argument are surest proofs of folly. Is there anything so stubborn, obstinate, disdainful, contemplative, grave, or serious, as an ass? Montaigne Obstinacy is ever most positive when most in the wrong. Mad. Necker Obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in, and best becoming, a mean and illiterate soul. Montaigne There are few, very few, who will own themselves in a mistake. Swift The slighter and more inconsistent the opinions of the obstinate man are, the faster he holds to them, otherwise they would fall apart of themselves: for opinions that are false he holds with more strictness and assurance than those that are true. He is resolved to understand no man's reason but his own, because he finds no man can understand his but himself. His opinions are like plants that grow upon rocks, that stick fast, though they have no rooting. Butler
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