"A man's mind will very gradually refuse to make itself up until it is driven and compelled by emergency"
About this Quote
Decision paralysis isn’t a modern disease; Trollope clocks it with Victorian precision. “A man’s mind will very gradually refuse to make itself up” frames indecision not as mere hesitation but as a slow, almost biological withdrawal from commitment. The mind “refuses” like a stubborn employee: present, technically, yet quietly on strike. Trollope’s sting is in the adverb “very gradually,” suggesting that the real danger isn’t dramatic doubt but the stealthy comfort of postponement, the way delay hardens into identity.
Then comes the kicker: clarity arrives only when “driven and compelled by emergency.” Not inspired, not persuaded, not enlightened-compelled. Trollope exposes a grim engine of human action: we like to imagine ourselves as rational choosers, weighing options until truth emerges. He suggests the opposite. Many choices are made only when choice is no longer available, when the room catches fire and suddenly the exit looks obvious. “Emergency” becomes the midwife of conviction.
In context, Trollope wrote in a society obsessed with propriety, reputation, and incremental progress-a culture where major life decisions (marriage, career, money) were often managed through delay, euphemism, and social choreography. His fiction is full of characters who “mean” to act and don’t, who confuse contemplation with virtue. The line cuts through that self-deception: the will is often less a noble faculty than a pressure response. Trollope isn’t celebrating crisis; he’s warning how easily we outsource agency to disaster, then call it fate.
Then comes the kicker: clarity arrives only when “driven and compelled by emergency.” Not inspired, not persuaded, not enlightened-compelled. Trollope exposes a grim engine of human action: we like to imagine ourselves as rational choosers, weighing options until truth emerges. He suggests the opposite. Many choices are made only when choice is no longer available, when the room catches fire and suddenly the exit looks obvious. “Emergency” becomes the midwife of conviction.
In context, Trollope wrote in a society obsessed with propriety, reputation, and incremental progress-a culture where major life decisions (marriage, career, money) were often managed through delay, euphemism, and social choreography. His fiction is full of characters who “mean” to act and don’t, who confuse contemplation with virtue. The line cuts through that self-deception: the will is often less a noble faculty than a pressure response. Trollope isn’t celebrating crisis; he’s warning how easily we outsource agency to disaster, then call it fate.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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