Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Mothers are all slightly insane.
—J. D. Salinger (1919–2010) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
All power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.
—Nora Ephron (1941–2012) American Journalist, Screenwriter, Director
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
—Anonymous
We cannot unthink unless we are insane.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
Only the insane have strength enough to survive. Only the survivors determine what is sane.
—Unknown
I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
In things pertaining to enthusiasm, no man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Faith is a permanent and vital endowment of the human mind—a part of reason itself. The insane alone are without it.
—Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) English Novelist, Dramatist, Poet
There is no insanity so devastating in man’s life as utter sanity.
—William Allen White (1868–1944) American Journalist, Author, Editor
The way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people but if we tried to shut up the insane we would run out of building materials.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
As a whole part of psychological education it needs to be remembered that a neurosis can be valuable; also that adjustment to a sick and insane environment is of itself not health but sickness and insanity.
—James Agee (1909–55) American Journalist, Poet, Screenwriter, Film Critic
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse their motion. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Great wits are sure to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
You must always be puzzled by mental illness. The thing I would dread most, if I became mentally ill, would be your adopting a common sense attitude; that you could take it for granted that I was deluded.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
Insanity: A perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
Insanity is contagious.
—Joseph Heller (1923–99) American Novelist
Love is a temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
The sanity of society is a balance of a thousand insanities.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
We are all born mad. Some remain so.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
—Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor
Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Far from the madding crowd
—Thomas Gray (1716–71) British Poet, Scholar
When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits … he has gained facts, learned his ignorance, is cured of the insanity of conceit, has got moderation and real skill.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Insanity in individuals is something rare—but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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