From the School Library...

"Don Abbondio was always absorbed in thinking out how he could ensure himself a quiet life, and was not interested in advantages of the sort which can only be obtained by hard application or by taking a few risks. His personal system consisted primarily in avoiding conflict whenever he could, and in giving way whenever conflict became unavoidable.

~

"His policy was one of unarmed neutrality in all wars that broke out around him, such as the conflicts which were then so frequent between clergy and lay authorities, between military and civilians, between noble and noble - right down to the quarrels between two peasants, arising from a hasty word, nad settled with fists or knives.

~

"If Don Abbondio could not help taking sides, he always sided with the stronger of the two contendants - very circumspectly, however, and making every effort to show the weaker party that he had no real feelings of emnity towards him.

~

"'Why couldn't you have been the stronger than the other fellow?' he seemed to say. 'Then I could have been on your side.'

~

"He kept away from bullies when he could; he pretended not to notice passing, capricious acts of arrogance, and greeted those that arose from a serious and deliberate intention with total submission. With his low bows and his air of respectful cheerfulness, he could induce even the most forbidding and contemptuous of men to give him a smile when they met in the street. In this way, poor Don Abbondio had reached the age of sixty without ever getting into serious trouble."

~ from Ch. 1 of I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed),
by Alessandro Manzoni

Hmmm... that's an interesting philosophy... but in the long run, will
it really get him anywhere worthwhile?

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Persevero,