Obstinacy Quotes - Page 4

• Smallness of mind is the cause of stubbornness, and we do not credit readily what is beyond our view.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Views, Mind, Credit

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• But I liked you from the moment I first heard your voice,” he said, “when I had no idea what you looked like. I thought it delicious, the way you bargained for me, as though I were an old rug. Then I loved the way you looked at me. Then I loved the way you ordered me about. I loved your patient and impatient ways of explaining things to me. I love the sound of your voice and the way you move. I love your courage and your kindness and your generosity and your obstinacy and your passion.” He paused. “You’re the genius. What do you think that means?

  Loretta Chase

  Kindness, Moving, Passion

  Loretta Chase (2005). “Mr. Impossible”, p.362, Penguin

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• Obstinacy and dogmatism are the surest signs of stupidity. Is there anything more confident, resolute, disdainful, grave and serious than an ass?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Stupidity, Serious, Ass

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• One blames politicians, not for inconsistency but for obstinacy. They are the interpreters, not the masters, of our fate. It is their job, in fact, to register the fact accompli.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Jobs, Fate, Politics

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• That the boat did not upset I simply state as a fact. Why it did not upset I am unable to offer any reason. I have often thought about the matter since, but I have never succeeded in arriving at any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. Possibly the result may have been brought about by the natural obstinacy of all things in this world. The boat may possibly have come to the conclusion, judging from a cursory view of our behaviour, that we had come out for a morning's suicide, and had thereupon determined to disappoint us. That is the only suggestion I can offer.

  Jerome K. Jerome

  Suicide, Morning, Views

  Jerome K. Jerome, Geoffrey Harvey (2008). “Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel”, p.135, Oxford University Press

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• It is altogether as worthy of God and as much becoming Him to pardon and show mercy, in case of repentance and submission and reformation, as to punish, in case of impenitency and obstinacy.

  Benjamin Whichcote

  Becoming, Mercy, Submission

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• If by sticking to the moral principles you have followed all your life, you jeopardize your happiness and that of others, throw over your principles. Principles for principles' sake -that is not wisdom; that is obstinacy. Principles should be fluid because life is fluid.

  Epifanio de los Santos

  Over You, Sake, Principles

  "Don Pañong - Genius" by A.V.H. Hartendorp, Philippine Magazine, p. 211, September 1929.

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• Heretics were most often bitterly persecuted for the their least deviation from accepted belief. It was precisely their obstinacy about trifles that irritated the righteous to madness.

  Lev Shestov

  Atheism, Irritated, Belief

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• The most savory grape, the one that produces the wines with best texture and aroma, the sweetest and most generous, doesn't grow in rich soil but in stony land; the plant, with a mother's obstinacy, overcomes obstacles to thrust its roots deep into the ground and take advantage of every drop of water. That, my grandmother explained to me, is how flavors are concentrated in the grape.

  Isabel Allende

  Mother, Wine, Roots

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• I saw in 'the wandering Jew' the personification of the Jewish people, exiled in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, they are once again extremely rich, owing to their unfailing rude greediness and their indefatigable activity. With their hard-heartedness that they extend toward people of other faiths and races they are at the point of making themselves kings of the world. This people can thank its obstinacy that France will be Judized within fifty years. Already some wise Jews prophesy this frankly.

  George Sand

  Wise, Kings, Race

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• The artist, surgeon, through clay form, can only look for cure with great obstinacy until he discovers, repeatedly, that love is god's only gift that enables man to transcend his tragedy and regain his wholeness and well-being beyond the claws of evil, rampaging as evil may be.

  Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

  Artist, Love Is, Men

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• Seas of blood have been shed for the sake of patriotism. One would expect the harm and irrationality of patriotism to be self-evident to everyone. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned people not only do not notice the harm and stupidity of patriotism, they resist every unveiling of it with the greatest obstinacy and passion (with no rational grounds), and continue to praise it as beneficent and elevating.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Passion, Self, Blood

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• Obstinacy can bring only a penalty and no reward.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Rewards, Penalties

  John Maynard Keynes (2006). “General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money”, p.101, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

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• Obstinacy is a fault of temperament. Stubbornness and intolerance of contradiction result from a special kind of egotism, which elevates above everything else the pleasure of its autonomous intellect, to which others must bow.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  Special, Bows, Faults

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.108, Princeton University Press

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• People who want a sane, static, measurable world take the first aspect of an event or person and stick to it, with an almost self-protective obstinacy, or by a natural limitation of their imaginations. They do not indulge in either deepening or magnifying.

  Anais Nin

  Self, Indulge In, People

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

  John Locke

  Mind, Adherence, Prejudice

  John Locke (1828). “An essay concerning human understanding ... The twentieth edition, etc”, p.560

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• As soon as you direct such a question outward to your fellow man and not inward to yourself, you have set yourself on a judgment seat and thereby judged yourself. You have robbed yourself of what you had won by your own continence; you have taken one step forward but ten backward: and then you have reason to weep over your obstinacy, your failure to improve, and your pride.

  Tito Colliander

  Taken, Pride, Men

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• The shortest route is not the most direct one, but rather the one where the most favorable winds swell our sails:Mthat is the lesson that seafarers teach. Not to abide by this lesson is to be obstinate: here, firmness of character is tainted with stupidity.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Character, Wind, Stupidity

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• The line between pride in our work and neurotic obstinacy is a narrow one. We make our recommendations clear. But we do not grudge our clients the right to the final say. It is their money.

  David Ogilvy

  Pride, Finals, Lines

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