I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
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
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
—Anonymous
O, judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British 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
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
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
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
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, 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: A perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Far from the madding crowd
—Thomas Gray (1716–71) English Poet, Book Collector
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
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
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
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
Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Great wits are sure to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes, but to get into accord with them; they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
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
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.
—Bruce Feirstein (b.1956) American Screenwriter, Humorist
Everyone is more or less mad on one point.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
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
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
All power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
For virtue’s self may too much zeal be had; the worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
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