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
We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.
—John Updike (1932–2009) American Novelist, Poet, Short-Story Writer
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they’re okay, then it’s you.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
Sanity is the lot of those who are most obtuse, for lucidity destroys one’s equilibrium: it is unhealthy to honestly endure the labors of the mind which incessantly contradict what they have just established.
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French Essayist, Intellectual
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I have my own little world, but it’s okay – they know me here.
—Unknown
There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
—Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor
Insanity: A perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
I don’t suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
—Anonymous
Sanity is a cozy lie.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
—Unknown
You only require two things in life: your sanity and your wife.
—Tony Blair (b.1953) British Statesman
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
Sanity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
If we weren’t all crazy, we would go insane.
—Jimmy Buffett (1946–2023) American Singer, Songwriter, Tropical Rock Musician
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
A man might pass for insane who should see things as they are.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
There is no insanity so devastating in man’s life as utter sanity.
—William Allen White (1868–1944) American Journalist, Author, Editor
A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
There is a pleasure sure
In being mad which none but madmen know.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
Today I felt pass over me
A breath of wind from the wings of madness.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
—Anonymous
A man who is “of sound mind” is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A lunatic may be “soothed,”… for a time, but in the end, he is very apt to become obstreperous. His cunning, too, is proverbial, and great…. When a madman appears thoroughly sane, indeed, it is high time to put him in a straight jacket.
—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
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