218．行动不可出自固执，而应源于了解

行动不可出自固执，而应源于了解。顽固不化是心灵的毒瘤、冲动的外孙，它会搞砸所有事情。有的人是社交方面的暴徒，可以把任何事情搞得像战争一样。他们所做的一切必须以胜利为结束，他们不懂和睦共处。如果他们成为统治者，定会搞得天翻地覆，让亲者变成仇人。他们企图用计控制一切，并把它看成是自己玩弄手腕的成果。但是，当别人认清他们刚愎自用的秉性，就会群起而攻之，破坏他们那异想天开的计划。他们因此一事无成，只得到一堆烦恼，因为凡事都会加重他们的失望。他们顽固不化，思想狂野。对于这种怪物，你没有什么办法，只能远离他们，哪怕是逃到地球的另一端，也许那边的野蛮人也比糟糕的固执之人好忍受一些。

218．Never act from obstinacy but from knowledge

Never act from obstinacy but from knowledge. All obstinacy is an excrescence of the mind, a grandchild of passion which never did anything right. There are persons who make a war out of everything, real banditti of intercourse. All that they undertake must end in victory; they do not know how to get on in peace. Such men are fatal when they rule and govern, for they make government rebellion, and enemies out of those whom they ought to regard as children. They try to effect everything with strategy and treat it as the fruit of their skill. But when others have recognized their perverse humour all revolt against them and learn to overturn their chimerical plans, and they succeed in nothing but only heap up a mass of troubles, since everything serves to increase their disappointment. They have a head turned and a heart spoilt. Nothing can be done with such monsters except to flee from them, even to the Antipodes, where the savagery is easier to bear than their loathsome nature.