Francois Rochefoucauld, "The happiness and misery of
people depend on their tempers." And re-stated by the
English philosopher, Earl of Shaftebury,' "From temper
only, a man may be completely miserable, let his outward
circumstances be ever so fortunate."
Having quoted an English philosopher on the
subject of temper, let's see what a German philosopher had
to say. The famed Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "The growth
of wisdom may be gauged accurately by the decline of
ill temper." And the wise Chinese philosopher, Lao-tse,
listed gentleness as the first quality of greatness.
If we haven't the wisdom and the will power
to get rid of our bad tempers and all the woes which
accompany them, perhaps we will grow more agreeable
as we grow older. "Not so!," says the American author,
Washington Irving, "A tart temper never mellows with
age; and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows
keener with constant use."
Mellowing with age may apply to wine, but
if we expect it to apply to people-especially people who
persist in indulging their bad tempers-we are in for a rude
awakening. Aging does not reverse our personality charac-
teristics-it intensifies and hardens them. This is especially
true of bad tempers and irritable dispositions.
This is due to the psychological fact that the
display of bad temper is an emotional habit and must be
treated and cured as a habit. As Dr. Karl A. Menninger,
one of America's foremost psychiah'ists, points out in his
excellent book, "The Human Mind", the display of bad
temper is an infantile reaction carried over into adolescence