In order to act, you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.
—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) French Head of State, Physician, Publisher, Political leader
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
Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
I may be crazy but it keeps me from going insane.
—Waylon Jennings (1937–2002) American Country Music Singer, Songwriter
Insanity: A perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
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
Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose 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
The source of numerous psychic disturbances and difficulties occasioned by man’s progressive alienation from his instinctual foundation, i.e., by his uprootedness and identification with his conscious knowledge of himself, by his concern with consciousness at the expense of the unconscious. The result is that modern man can know himself only in so far as he can become conscious of himself—his consciousness therefor orients itself chiefly by observing and investigating the world around him, and it is to its peculiarities that he must adapt his psychic and technical resources. This task is so exacting, and its fulfillment so advantageous, that he forgets himself in the process, losing sight of his instinctual nature and putting his own conception of himself in place of his real being. In this way he slips imperceptibly into a purely conceptual world where the products of his conscious activity progressively replace reality. Separation from his instinctual nature inevitably plunges civilized man into the conflict between conscious and unconscious, spirit and nature, knowledge and faith, a split that becomes pathological the moment his consciousness is no longer able to neglect or suppress his instinctual side.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
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
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
—Anonymous
Sanity is very rare: every man almost, and every woman, has a dash of madness.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Mothers are all slightly insane.
—J. D. Salinger (1919–2010) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
Far from the madding crowd
—Thomas Gray (1716–71) English Poet, Book Collector
Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society.
—Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian-American Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst
We are all born mad. Some remain so.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
How strange to have failed as a social creature—even criminals do not fail that way—they are the law’s “Loyal Opposition,” so to speak. But the insane are always mere guests on earth, eternal strangers carrying around broken decalogues that they cannot read.
—Unknown
One is taught by experience to put a premium on those few people who can appreciate you for what you are.
—Gail Godwin (b.1937) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
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
What is madness but nobility of soul. At odds with circumstance?
—Theodore Roethke (1908–63) American Poet
O, judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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 hereditary; you can get it from your children
—Sam Levenson (1911–80) American Humorist, Writer, TV Personality, Journalist
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
Only the insane have strength enough to survive. Only the survivors determine what is sane.
—Unknown
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.
—Bruce Feirstein (b.1956) American Screenwriter, Humorist
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
Great wits are sure to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright