Fools are stubborn in their way,
As coins are hardened by the allay;
And obstinacy's never so stiff
As when 'tis in a wrong belief. [ Butler ]

Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong. [ Dryden ]

Awkward, embarrassed, stiff, without the skill
Of moving gracefully or standing still.
One leg, as if suspicious of his brother.
Desirous seems to run away from t' other. [ Churchill ]

The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, and still fluttered down the snow. [ Lowell ]

Such a noise arose as the shroud? make at sea in a stiff tempest, as loud and to as many tunes, - hats, cloaks, doublets, I think, flew up; and had their faces been loose, this day they had been lost. [ William Shakespeare ]

In beginning the world, if you don't wish to get chafed at every turn, fold up your pride carefully, put it under lock and key, and only let it out to air upon grand occasions. Pride is a garment all stiff brocade outside, all grating sackcloth on the side next to the skin. [ Lytton ]

Nature, when she amused herself by giving stiff manners to old maids, put virtue in a very bad light. A woman must have been a mother to preserve under the chilling influences of time that grace of manner and sweetness of temper, which prompt us to say, One sees that love has dwelt there. [ Lemontey ]

Phaeton was his father's heir; born to attain the highest fortune without earning it; he had built no sun-chariot (could not build the simplest wheel-barrow), but could and would insist on driving one; and so broke his own stiff neck, sent gig and horses spinning through infinite space, and set the universe on fire. [ Carlyle ]