Obstinacy

Obstinacy is acting in a manner characterized by stubbornly adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course, usually with implied unreasonableness.

Quotes

 * 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.
 * Bishop Joseph Butler, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 437.


 * We sometimes speak of stubborn facts. Nonsense! A fact is a mere babe when compared with a stubborn theory.
 * Samuel McChord Crothers, The Gentle Reader (1903) p. 277


 * His still refuted quirks he still repeats, New-raised objections with new quibbles meets; Till sinking in the quicksand he defends, He dies disputing, and the contest ends.
 * William Cowper, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 437.


 * Obstinacy is ever most positive when it is most in the wrong.
 * Madame Necker; reported in Louis Klopsch, ed., Many Thoughts of Many Minds: A Treasury of Quotations From the Literature of Every Land and Every Age (1896), p. 195.