Aging & Wisdom Quote by Charles Spurgeon

Spurgeon turns temperament into a moral instrument, and he does it with a tradesman’s bluntness. “Vigorous temper” isn’t a pass for being abrasive; it’s a defense of heat, edge, and holy impatience in an era when respectability could masquerade as virtue. The line refuses the Victorian fantasy that goodness is always smooth, always soothing. For Spurgeon, a little fire is often proof of life.

The sly move is in “not altogether an evil.” He concedes the obvious risk - anger can curdle into pride or cruelty - then pivots to a harsher target: the people “easy as an old shoe.” That simile lands because it’s domestic and faintly insulting. Old shoes are convenient, broken-in, reliable, and already shaped by other people’s feet. They don’t resist. They don’t bite back. Spurgeon is warning his congregation against confusing agreeableness with character, pliancy with principle.

In context, this tracks with a preacher who fought publicly: against theological drift, moral complacency, and the soft-pedaled faith of polite society. Spurgeon’s pulpit style was famously direct, sometimes combative, and this quote doubles as self-justification. He’s offering a framework where intensity can be sanctified if it’s harnessed toward conviction and courage.

The subtext is almost managerial: the world doesn’t get better through frictionless personalities. It changes because certain people can’t sit still with wrongness. Spurgeon’s provocation is that a “pleasant” spirit may be less a fruit of virtue than a symptom of low stakes.