'To avoid dissensions we should be ever on our guard,
more especially with those who drive us to argue with them, with those
who vex and irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to
anger. When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric
individuals, people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking
things, difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and
the wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so
preposterous. Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are
anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect
disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they do
all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way to
baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to leave
them to chew the cud of their hasty anger. This method of bringing down
their pride disarms them, and shows them plainly that we slight and
despise them.'
