Temper

thumb|right|Men are like steel — when they lose their temper, they lose their worth. Temper is a word used to denote a variety of qualities. It derives from Temperare (to mix correctly) the Latin origin of words like "temperature" and "tempering"; it and "tempo" come, in turn, from tempus (time or season). Thus, the word "temper" can refer (at least informally) to any time- and temperature-sensitive process, a material's thermo-mechanical history, or even its composition. Quotes Men are like steel — when they lose their temper, they lose their worth. Anonymous proverb; though often attributed to Chuck Norris, this seems to have appeared at least as early as 1961, in an edition of The Physical Educator Through certain humors or passions, and from temper merely, a man may be completely miserable, let his outward circumstances be ever so fortunate. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, as quoted in Day's Collacon : An Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations: (1884), p. 930 Good temper, like a sunny day, sheds a brightness over everything; it is the sweetener of toil and the soother of disquietude. Washington Irving, in Gems for the Fireside (1882) by Otis Henry Tiffany, p. 48 The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune. François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims and Moral Reflections (1791), CLVII, p. 48 A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered. Proverbs 17:27, (New International Version) When you see anyone complainingof such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper,know that the complainant is bad-tempered,forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person,because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearingtowards the bad-tempered and ill-natured. Rumi, Jewels of Remembrance : A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance : Containing 365 Selections from the Wisdom of Rumi (1996) Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski, IV, 771-4 Courtesy of temper, when it is used to veil churlishness of deed, is but a knight's girdle around the breast of a base clown. Walter Scott, as quoted in "Gleanings from Many Minds" in The Guernsey magazine (October 1876) External links temper Category:Themes