Life & Wisdom Quote by William Congreve

Congreve’s line isn’t a gentle plea for open-mindedness; it’s a social x-ray. In a culture where “reason” was becoming the era’s preferred self-image, he frames stubbornness not as strength but as a tell: the louder someone guards their opinion, the shakier that opinion probably is. The sentence is built like a trap. “Closes his ears” is physical and childish, a deliberate refusal to even process other people as thinking beings. Then comes the twist of the knife: the problem isn’t ignorance, it’s “little confidence” - insecurity dressed up as certainty.

The word “integrity” does heavy lifting. Congreve isn’t talking about correctness; he’s talking about internal coherence and moral sturdiness. A view with integrity can tolerate friction. It survives contact with disagreement because it’s been tested, revised, and owned. The person who can’t bear rival perspectives is protecting a fragile identity as much as an argument.

Context matters: Congreve, best known for Restoration comedy, wrote in a world of salons, coffeehouses, and theatrical sparring, where reputation was currency and wit was a weapon. This is the etiquette of intellectual combat disguised as moral advice: if you’re truly confident, you can afford to listen. Subtextually, he’s also policing the performance of authority. The quote shames the self-appointed gatekeeper who mistakes refusal for rigor, exposing censorship and incuriosity as symptoms of fear, not principle.