Chapter 63Bad Temper Is Worse Than Bad
Fortune
With good humor and a pleasant disposition
you can conquer misfortune. But a bad temper and a
nasty disposition will conquer you. A bad temper will
make life a hell for you and all those around you.
There must be something very damaging about
a bad temper because so many famous thinkers have
made a special point of warning about it.
A bad temper will hurt you far more than it
will hurt those at whom it is directed, as the English author,
Charles Buxton warns, "Bad temper is its own scourge.
Few things are more bitter than to feel bitter. A man's
venom poisons himself more than his victim."
Or, as Bishop Richard Cumberland said, "Of
all bad things by which mankind are cursed, their own
bad tempers surely are the worst." Now, a Bishop has
made ample study of "all bad things by which mankind