“A man's mind will very generally refuse to make itself up until it be driven and compelled by emergency.”

—  Anthony Trollope , book Ayala's Angel

Ayala's Angel (1881), Ch. 41

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A man's mind will very generally refuse to make itself up until it be driven and compelled by emergency." by Anthony Trollope?
Anthony Trollope photo
Anthony Trollope 128
English novelist (1815-1882) 1815–1882

Related quotes

Hal Abelson photo

“See, in general, as systems designers, you’re forced with necessity to make decisions about how you’re going to do things, and in general, the way you’d like to retain flexibility is to never make up your mind about anything until you’re forced to do it. The problem is, there’s a very, very narrow line between deferring decisions and outright procrastination. So you’d like to make progress, but also at the same time, never be bound by the consequences of your decisions.”

Hal Abelson (1947) computer scientist

Source: Lecture on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrFkf-T-6Co

Orson Scott Card photo

“You just refuse to leave them alone until they change their minds. Of their own free will.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Adlai Stevenson photo

“Man is a strange animal. He generally cannot read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against it.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

The 1957 Ford Almanac has the quote "It's too late to read the handwriting on the wall when your back's up against it", attributed to "Anon." The quote appeared in several variations afterwards, for instance in an essay by Meredith Thring in Nature Magazine in 1965. It began to be attributed without context to Stevenson in the 1970s. According to "Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy" by Porter McKeever (p. 566), Stevenson made this remark "with increasing frequency in the final months of his life"; but Stevenson died in 1965 and this book does not give a precise reference. Absent better attestation, Stevenson either used the quote from elsewhere or the association with Stevenson is a mistake.
Misattributed

Cassandra Clare photo

“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“When the sins and errors of an age have made the world impossible to live in, the next generation, seeking to make life tolerable again, may be able to find no way save by surrender of cherished ideals, and so may find themselves compelled to cast about for new dreams and purposes. An important aspect of the historical process is the work of the new generation… being driven to something like a creative act for the very reason that life on the old terms has become impossible.”

Herbert Butterfield book The Whig Interpretation of History

The Whig Interpretation of History (1931)

James Russell Lowell photo

“It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Abraham Lincoln http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/1lncn10h.htm (1864)

Theresa May photo

“There should be no general election until 2020. There should be a normal Autumn Statement, held in the normal way at the normal time, and no emergency Budget.”

Theresa May (1956) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech declaring bid for the Conservative Party leadership http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-mays-tory-leadership-launch-statement-full-text-a7111026.html (30 June 2016)

Alexander Graham Bell photo

“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with — a man is what he makes of himself.”

Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) scientist and inventor known for his work on the telephone

Bell Telephone Talk (1901)

James A. Michener photo

“…organizations like the church or General Motors promote a man up and up until he reaches a spot which he is obviously incapable of filling, and there they lay him to rest.”

James A. Michener book Poland

page 587
Poland (1983)

Related topics