It takes less brain to criticise unwisely, captiously, far less than to help.
"Quiet Talks on Service"
S. D. Gordon
So back to Sir G. Carteret's and ended our business, and so away homewards, but Sir W. Batten offering to go to the 3 Tuns at Charing Cross, where the pretty maid the daughter of the house is; I was saying that, that tickled Sir W. Pen, he seemed to take these words very captiously and angrily, which I saw, and seemed indifferent to go home in his coach with them, and so took leave to go to the Council Chamber to speak with my Lord Privy Seal, which I did, but they did stay for me, which I was pleased at, but no words passed between him and me in all our way home.
"Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete Transcribed From The Shorthand Manuscript In The Pepysian Library Magdalene College Cambridge By The Rev. Mynors Bright"
Samuel Pepys Commentator: Lord Braybrooke
He no longer played the lover to a cold and distant mistress, but carried himself haughtily at times-captiously at times-and always with an air of indifference.
"The Allen House or Twenty Years Ago and Now"
T. S. Arthur