Frederick Douglass: “Such is the constitution of the human mind, that, when pressed to…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1855

Such is the constitution of the human mind, that, when pressed to extremes, it often avails itself of the most opposite methods.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass reflects on the psychological mechanisms people employ when facing extreme duress.

More from Frederick Douglass

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Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.

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None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.

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No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.

Frederick Douglass: “Such is the constitution of the human mind, that, when pressed to extremes, it often avails itself of the most opposite…”