Man is a complicating creature, which only simplifies under duress.

September 11, 2009 10:28 AM

Please help me identify the author and exact text of a quote. To paraphrase, "Man is a complicating creature, which only simplifies under duress."

My google searches are dry... you're my only hope!

posted by degrees_of_freedom to writing & language (3 comments total)

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life. - August Strindberg

Is that it? That's probably not it.
posted by caveat at 11:15 AM on September 11

It's Robert Townsend, "Man is a complicating animaL He only simplifies under pressure". If you search for that text you'll get a cite.
posted by inkyz at 2:38 PM on September 11

You nailed it.

Thank you!
posted by degrees_of_freedom at 5:22 PM on September 11