Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good.
quote by Thomas Browne

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The obstinacy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinacy of folly and inanity.
quote by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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'Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause, and of obstinacy in a bad one.
quote by Laurence Stern

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In the Spirit of Rumi-16
I said to My Beloved
How, my dearest one,
do you know those who truly love You?
My Beloved said
Not by their smiling face,
nor by their eagerness;
nor by the quickness of their response,
nor by the force and wealth of their response
pleasing though these are –
but by their stillness: as
a rose is still; or as a fine-proportioned vase is still;
or as a sunlit golden dome is still;
or as the bluest vault of heaven is still;
they have a stillness all about them; for
their hearts are ever at rest; there is no need
for their still heart to move; they are
always the same; they rest in love;
they meet you with all love,
they greet you with all love;
you cannot add to their true love,
you cannot take away from their true love;
and if you wish to test their love,
the test is constancy; there is no change in them;
they speak, they feel, they act, from constancy;
what is their substance? It is constancy;
I stand with them in constancy,
they stand with Me in constancy..
if that is not what you would ask of them in love,
then they are not for you; but they,
they are My true lovers, lovers of the truth in Me
-said My Beloved.
poem by Michael Shepherd

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0006 The Constant Heart
The test is constancy –
the proof, the constant heart.
See that pair who walk across the park -
from the back, it’s difficult to see their age –
they walk as if there’s nowhere now to go;
for they’re so still, inside themselves; they’re joined
by that shared stillness. Now and then they glance
deep into each other’s eyes – seeing there,
a constancy. Their hearts – you see it – are at rest.
They can remember with an inner smile
how when they met, they put on every charm
to seek to catch each other for themselves;
now they dive, swim, laugh, at rest
within each other's still, warm constancy.
See them walk and laugh their way
across the park; across their life.
* * *
See now over there, the man who stands,
talking quietly, with observant eye;
a group of boys around him who
can think of nothing else but listening:
he’s still, he’s standing sure within himself.
He’s just too far away for you to hear the words he says;
and yet you know – he’s constant in himself,
he’s constant in all that he gives to them.
They’ve found a wise man, and they’re listening.
* * *
The test is constancy –
The proof, the constant heart.
(with acknowledgements to Shantananda Saraswati)
poem by Michael Shepherd

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Constancy.....
no matter what
it remains standing there
when tired
it sits sometimes when we are not watching
it deceives
and lies and mocks us when we are not looking
but what we must admire
and give credit
to this kind of thing
is its constancy
so that
when it rains or shines
it is always there
nothing moves it
and nothing defeats it
it is always there
and we applaud it
we put the boundaries
and mark the monument
of this
constancy
a sculpture of a body
with a face
like ours.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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The Constancy Of A Noble Purpose
how must i tell you again
it is not the intelligence but the
constancy of purpose
at first and then
you either do not listen when you
heard me clear or
you simply cannot accept it and
change
you believe always on intelligence
and so i watch you risk everything upon it
trying to explain every grain of sand
and there too many of them
and they invade your intelligence and
they bury it
then
finally killing you
suffocating you because the sands in their
constancy of purpose
never believe what intelligence
preaches and
bragged.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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One of the satisfactions of a genius is his will-power and obstinacy.

Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
quote by Arthur Schopenhauer

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Lawyers' robes are lined with the obstinacy of suitors.
May God in his mercy enable us without obstinacy to perceive our errors.
quote by Michael Servetus

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Speaking generally, punishment hardens and numbs, it produces obstinacy, it sharpens the sense of alienation and strengthens the power of resistance.
quote by Friedrich Nietzsche

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Nothing is vice in love
Obstinacy and shamelessness,
Ruthlessness and pitilessness,
Violence and false promises
Aren’t held as vice in love games
10.11.2007
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

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The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.
quote by Henry Ward Beecher

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Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.
quote by Robert Peel

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Ch 08 On Rules For Conduct In Life - Maxim 43
A scholar is not meekly to overlook the folly of a common person because thus both parties are injured; the dignity of the former being lessened, and the ignorance of the latter confirmed.
Speak gracefully and kindly to a low fellow,
His pride and obstinacy will augment.
Obstinacy and Malcontent
Livid and delusional,
Haplessly obdurate,
Like these smoke and mirrors
Distorting the visage of hope
And faith in prayers sent forth
Whilst the coruscations of the past
Inveigles the doom in these eyes
And I exhumed myself alone
In declining my liberation
This obstinacy and malcontent
Deluges with the brine of blood
From angry vessels rooted
And gnarled in the dark corners
Of the cobwebbed heart
Because in this pawned life
Where satisfaction is a drug
To forget the querulous vertex
(To be complete not only in the dark)
The coup-de-grace was a dejection
An unspoken unfaithfulness
That devoured the flame
And the verdigris of the soul
Disemboguing everything
Until the only resolve for pain
Is the sedation in a greater pain;
A wrath that defends
This obstinacy and malcontent
That was once acknowledged
And fortified with sympathy
The resentment of the light
Dislimned the mirror in these eyes
And exhausted the smoky screen
To unfurl that the dark
Had always been underneath
These placidly asleep canopies
Now how do I rectify my truth?
Like these smoke and mirrors
I hid inside myself, unscathed
Groveling for a final clout
So I can shatter into dusts
And finally disappear
In my absolution.
poem by Norman Santos

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The Love Sonnets Of Proteus. Part II: To Juliet: XXX
THE RELIGION OF LOVE
So thou but love me, dear, with thy whole heart
What care I for the rest, for good or ill?
What for the peace of soul good deeds impart,
What for the tears unholy dreams distil?
These cannot make my joy, nor shall they kill.
Thou only perfect peace and virtue art
And holiness for me and strength and will,
So thou but love me with a perfect heart.
I ask thee now no longer to be wise;
No longer to be good, but loving me.
I ask thee nothing now but only this.
Henceforth my Bible, dear, shall be thine eyes,
My beads thy lips, my prayers thy constancy,
My heaven thine arms, eternity thy kiss.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

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The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
quote by Benjamin Disraeli

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The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
quote by Benjamin Disraeli

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