{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness", "heading": "Quotes about madness", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness.md", "quotes_count": 183, "authors_count": 108, "parent": null, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "de0bdf06-dc90-4a43-81dd-e2b7fc40cf92", "slug": "poetry-demands-a-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/poetics/poetry-demands-a-man", "text": "Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aristotle", "slug": "aristotle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle" }, "book": { "title": "Poetics", "slug": "poetics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/poetics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "poetry", "slug": "poetry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aristotle#Poetics", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:46" }, { "id": "46a0d881-f651-4743-b3c2-623a80c83551", "slug": "driven-raving-mad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludovico-ariosto/orlando-furioso/driven-raving-mad", "text": "Driven raving mad by love—and he a man who had been always esteemed for his great prudence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ludovico Ariosto", "slug": "ludovico-ariosto", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludovico-ariosto" }, "book": { "title": "Orlando Furioso", "slug": "orlando-furioso", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludovico-ariosto/orlando-furioso" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ludovico_Ariosto#Orlando_Furioso_(1532)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:47" }, { "id": "ebded385-13e7-4bd8-999f-d70d353d0390", "slug": "i-think-were", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/danse-macabre/i-think-were", "text": "I think we're all a little mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better-and maybe not all that much better, after all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen King", "slug": "stephen-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king" }, "book": { "title": "Danse Macabre", "slug": "danse-macabre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/danse-macabre" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 184, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre_(book)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:43" }, { "id": "f0ba00b7-f421-4658-8025-81888e736f5c", "slug": "i-think-perhaps", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch/psycho/i-think-perhaps", "text": "I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Bloch", "slug": "robert-bloch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch" }, "book": { "title": "Psycho", "slug": "psycho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch/psycho" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Bloch#Psycho_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:09" }, { "id": "e701eb53-3ed2-4a49-b62e-7c0586e66959", "slug": "were-all-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch/psycho/were-all-not", "text": "We're all not quite as sane as we pretend to be.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Bloch", "slug": "robert-bloch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch" }, "book": { "title": "Psycho", "slug": "psycho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch/psycho" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Bloch#Psycho_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:09" }, { "id": "14404717-80d8-4015-9eb6-ceedfd43b5bd", "slug": "who-has-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-elizabeth-braddon/lady-audleys-secret/who-has-not", "text": "Who has not been, or is not to be mad in some lonely hour of life? Who is quite safe from the trembling of the balance?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Elizabeth Braddon", "slug": "mary-elizabeth-braddon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-elizabeth-braddon" }, "book": { "title": "Lady Audley's Secret", "slug": "lady-audleys-secret", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-elizabeth-braddon/lady-audleys-secret" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Elizabeth_Braddon#Lady_Audley's_Secret_(1862)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:02" }, { "id": "47d5d353-42ca-42fd-a807-fecd5104535c", "slug": "the-girl-convinced", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-wright/the-swan-book/the-girl-convinced", "text": "The girl convinced herself that only the mad people in the world would tell you the truth when madness was the truth, when the truth itself was mad. (p64)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexis Wright", "slug": "alexis-wright", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-wright" }, "book": { "title": "The Swan Book", "slug": "the-swan-book", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-wright/the-swan-book" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_Wright#The_Swan_Book_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:56" }, { "id": "d60570d1-9222-47f1-8cc7-92e1ec564fff", "slug": "i-had-no-doubt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/the-spiral-labyrinth/i-had-no-doubt", "text": "I had no doubt that there was madness here. How could it be otherwise in a cosmos that was ordered solely by will? It did not mean that the insane would automatically rise to the apex of the social order; their efforts would be diffused by the randomness of the impulses that drove them. But those whose extraordinary powers of will propelled them to the heights of power and rank would always be vulnerable to going further than they should. And there would be none but their equally mad rivals to restrain them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "The Spiral Labyrinth", "slug": "the-spiral-labyrinth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/the-spiral-labyrinth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 106, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#The_Spiral_Labyrinth_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:54" }, { "id": "3bd28109-72d8-4382-ae1d-f3cd01e675a4", "slug": "the-insane-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/hespira/the-insane-had", "text": "The insane had a tendency to cloak others in the strange garments they found hanging in the backs of their own mental wardrobes. So, for that matter, did the rest of us, but the consequences of error were usually less drastic.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Hespira", "slug": "hespira", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/hespira" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 65, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#Hespira_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:54" }, { "id": "03da9f52-b89e-4fec-8734-80528f5578a0", "slug": "insanity-was-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/majestrum/insanity-was-not", "text": "Insanity was not unknown among the wealthy. Indeed, some forms of madness had sometimes been cultivated as fashionable accessories.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Majestrum", "slug": "majestrum", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/majestrum" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 60, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#Majestrum_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:53" }, { "id": "7351f9aa-e2ce-402e-8225-751339101605", "slug": "yes-he-realized", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides/yes-he-realized", "text": "Yes, he realized, if a man began to think of himself as divinely appointed, he was close to thinking of himself as God—and at that point lay insanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George R. Stewart", "slug": "george-r-stewart", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart" }, "book": { "title": "Earth Abides", "slug": "earth-abides", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-r-stewart/earth-abides" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 38, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_R._Stewart#Earth_Abides_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:34" }, { "id": "c956dc74-a4fd-4d28-98d3-3bb9fd35ba8d", "slug": "and-that-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/damascus-gate/and-that-was", "text": "And that was it, he thought. It was all a series of rooms one never found one's way out of. You had to be content with that, or die, or go completely crazy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert S. Stone", "slug": "robert-s-stone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone" }, "book": { "title": "Damascus Gate", "slug": "damascus-gate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/damascus-gate" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 249, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Stone_(novelist)#Damascus_Gate_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:19" }, { "id": "0fe9616d-ae5d-458d-a460-545ebc86003c", "slug": "the-thing-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/the-thing-that", "text": "The thing that makes a man go crazy isn't loneliness or suffering after all - it's being kept in a state of perpetual dread.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#Six", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:11" }, { "id": "9efb9801-96e8-4f45-b23b-d4f34fa157e5", "slug": "was-she-a-bit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos/was-she-a-bit", "text": "\"Was she a bit mad?\"\n\n\"Mad? Oh, no - unless you would call a failure to grow up a kind of madness - in which case there would be very few sane people.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "Plan for Chaos", "slug": "plan-for-chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 202, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "growing up", "slug": "growing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Plan_for_Chaos_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:06" }, { "id": "0d27f64d-e4b6-4903-a29d-94b4d4fe0d58", "slug": "there-is-a-sense", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos/there-is-a-sense", "text": "There is a sense of reason's fingernails scrabbling to keep their hold, as one slides towards something which is not accountable; not, by ordinary standards, quite sane...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "Plan for Chaos", "slug": "plan-for-chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/plan-for-chaos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 170, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Plan_for_Chaos_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:06" }, { "id": "15483373-674b-4645-9b58-260c410b0c77", "slug": "the-difference-between", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/the-woman-warrior/the-difference-between", "text": "The difference between mad people and sane people...is that sane people have variety when they talk-story. Mad people have only one story that they talk over and over. (p159, \"At the Western Palace\")", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Maxine Hong Kingston", "slug": "maxine-hong-kingston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston" }, "book": { "title": "The Woman Warrior", "slug": "the-woman-warrior", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/the-woman-warrior" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maxine_Hong_Kingston#The_Woman_Warrior:_Memoirs_of_a_Girlhood_Among_Ghosts_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:47" }, { "id": "81893302-036b-4539-b90b-9bf3f792306d", "slug": "when-life-itself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated/when-life-itself", "text": "When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tara Westover", "slug": "tara-westover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover" }, "book": { "title": "Educated", "slug": "educated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 301, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tara_Westover#Educated_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "3a46bcda-f030-426c-b155-5ddafada3d54", "slug": "the-thing-about", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated/the-thing-about", "text": "The thing about having a mental breakdown is that no matter how obvious it is that you’re having one, it is somehow not obvious to you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tara Westover", "slug": "tara-westover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover" }, "book": { "title": "Educated", "slug": "educated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 307, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "psychology", "slug": "psychology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/psychology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tara_Westover#Educated_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "63043c52-ef25-44dc-bedc-7b84ac80b525", "slug": "one-form-of-insanity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/convergence/one-form-of-insanity", "text": "One form of insanity bears the name curiosity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "Convergence", "slug": "convergence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/convergence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 433, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "curiosity", "slug": "curiosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#Convergence_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:34" }, { "id": "f5ac4a6b-81f7-416a-b958-30d0ca58fe8b", "slug": "what-i-found", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/transcendence/what-i-found", "text": "What I found was worse than diversity—it was insanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "Transcendence", "slug": "transcendence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/transcendence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 188, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#Transcendence_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:33" }, { "id": "d3e579c7-4ab5-4d92-acf2-e3ea1b601920", "slug": "what-does-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/summertide/what-does-one", "text": "What does one do when a madman suggests an appealing course of action? One worries—but probably goes along with it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "Summertide", "slug": "summertide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/summertide" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 151, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#Summertide_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:32" }, { "id": "d8bf2cd1-8b9c-4731-bf60-c2726caf1c46", "slug": "we-wont-necessarily", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/the-man-who-fell-to-earth/we-wont-necessarily", "text": "“We won’t necessarily become extinct. Disarmament is being negotiated. Not all of us are insane.”\n\n“But most of you are. Enough of you are—it only requires a few insane ones, in the right places.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "The Man Who Fell to Earth", "slug": "the-man-who-fell-to-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/the-man-who-fell-to-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 152, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#The_Man_Who_Fell_to_Earth_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:25" }, { "id": "000d06a8-72ee-4e6b-8633-46bc1ad70960", "slug": "as-a-scientist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/planetfall/as-a-scientist", "text": "As a scientist, I know this is madness. But I also know this is an act of faith.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emma Newman", "slug": "emma-newman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman" }, "book": { "title": "Planetfall", "slug": "planetfall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/planetfall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 305, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emma_Newman#Planetfall_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:17" }, { "id": "f095204d-64ac-4862-8a47-eabb1d3caffc", "slug": "quelius-youre-nuts-did-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/the-shape-changer/quelius-youre-nuts-did-you", "text": "“Quelius—you’re nuts—did you know that?”\n\n“Of course. That’s quite all right. Better embarked on an exciting insanity than moldering away in dull normality. One thing you can’t deny: we psychotics lead interesting lives.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Keith Laumer", "slug": "keith-laumer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer" }, "book": { "title": "The Shape Changer", "slug": "the-shape-changer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/the-shape-changer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 713, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "boredom", "slug": "boredom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keith_Laumer#The_Shape_Changer_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:08" }, { "id": "70c988b2-c052-42d9-9129-0fdb869a3aef", "slug": "she-wanted-to-be-crazy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/glen-cook/cold-copper-tears/she-wanted-to-be-crazy", "text": "She wanted to be crazy. She said when you’re crazy the truth is whatever you want it to be. She wanted what she remembered not to be true.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Glen Cook", "slug": "glen-cook", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/glen-cook" }, "book": { "title": "Cold Copper Tears", "slug": "cold-copper-tears", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/glen-cook/cold-copper-tears" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 139, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Glen_Cook#Cold_Copper_Tears_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:44" }, { "id": "553731a3-1a91-4ff7-8b69-7f958b52657c", "slug": "but-sanity-vasko", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/absolution-gap/but-sanity-vasko", "text": "But sanity, Vasko decided, was like the pattern of lights he could see through his cabin window. In almost any direction the only way to travel was into darkness, and there was a lot more darkness than light.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Absolution Gap", "slug": "absolution-gap", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/absolution-gap" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 105, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Absolution_Gap_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:39" }, { "id": "097f4430-270c-46e6-9504-3f961275917e", "slug": "tanner-are-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city/tanner-are-you", "text": "“Tanner, are you insane?”\n\n“Very probably several kinds of insane,” I said. “But I’m afraid it doesn’t change anything. I’m perfectly happy with my current delusional system.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "Chasm City", "slug": "chasm-city", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 454, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Chasm_City_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:38" }, { "id": "b7781eef-42de-468d-a327-dcd026113314", "slug": "the-general-fact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/the-general-fact", "text": "The general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion, like the physical exhaustion of Mr. Holbein. To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain. The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "poetry", "slug": "poetry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_II._%22The_Maniac%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:12" }, { "id": "9d7017c2-73e4-4379-a98f-afbc14d99ba6", "slug": "the-madmans-explanation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/the-madmans-explanation", "text": "The madman's explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory. Or, to speak more strictly, the insane explanation, if not conclusive, is at least unanswerable; this may be observed specially in the two or three commonest kinds of madness. If a man says (for instance) that men have a conspiracy against him, you cannot dispute it except by saying that all the men deny that they are conspirators; which is exactly what conspirators would do. His explanation covers the facts as much as yours. Or if a man says that he is the rightful King of England, it is no complete answer to say that the existing authorities call him mad; for if he were King of England that might be the wisest thing for the existing authorities to do. Or if a man says that he is Jesus Christ, it is no answer to tell him that the world denies his divinity; for the world denied Christ's.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_II._%22The_Maniac%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:12" }, { "id": "5f1615e3-4729-4648-99ae-a46bba18b4da", "slug": "imagination-does-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/imagination-does-not", "text": "Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_II._%22The_Maniac%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:12" }, { "id": "52c9652d-3756-4d98-9b0e-58c22388c720", "slug": "mysticism-keeps-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/mysticism-keeps-men", "text": "Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of to-day) free also to believe in them. He has always cared more for truth than for consistency. If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, he would take the two truths and the contradiction along with them. His spiritual sight is stereoscopic, like his physical sight: he sees two different pictures at once and yet sees all the better for that. Thus, he has always believed that there was such a thing as fate, but such a thing as free will also. Thus, he believes that children were indeed the kingdom of heaven, but nevertheless ought to be obedient to the kingdom of earth. He admired youth because it was young and age because it was not. It is exactly this balance of apparent contradictions that has been the whole buoyancy of the healthy man. The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "secrets", "slug": "secrets", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_II._%22The_Maniac%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:12" }, { "id": "13c82a0e-5964-4075-aec0-98c95abfb077", "slug": "every-remedy-is-a-desperate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/every-remedy-is-a-desperate", "text": "Every remedy is a desperate remedy. Every cure is a miraculous cure. Curing a madman is not arguing with a philosopher; it is casting out a devil.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_II._%22The_Maniac%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:12" }, { "id": "0342d8ea-a671-4790-8d0a-d56f2960c21a", "slug": "the-last-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/the-last-thing", "text": "The last thing that can be said of a lunatic is that his actions are causeless. If any human acts may loosely be called causeless, they are the minor acts of a healthy man; whistling as he walks; slashing the grass with a stick; kicking his heels or rubbing his hands. It is the happy man who does the useless things; the sick man is not strong enough to be idle. It is exactly such careless and causeless actions that the madman could never understand; for the madman (like the determinist) generally sees too much cause in everything. The madman would read a conspiratorial significance into those empty activities. He would think that the lopping of the grass was an attack on private property. He would think that the kicking of the heels was a signal to an accomplice. If the madman could for an instant become careless, he would become sane. Every one who has had the misfortune to talk with people in the heart or on the edge of mental disorder, knows that their most sinister quality is a horrible clarity of detail; a connecting of one thing with another in a map more elaborate than a maze. If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by the things that go with good judgment. He is not hampered by a sense of humour or by charity, or by the dumb certainties of experience. He is the more logical for losing certain sane affections. Indeed, the common phrase for insanity is in this respect a misleading one. The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_II._%22The_Maniac%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:12" }, { "id": "9168e434-8ab5-44b5-b3a0-61eaf8802ed8", "slug": "he-was-reluctantly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lin-carter/time-war/he-was-reluctantly", "text": "He was reluctantly forced to conclude that his sanity was unshaken.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lin Carter", "slug": "lin-carter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lin-carter" }, "book": { "title": "Time War", "slug": "time-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lin-carter/time-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 27, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lin_Carter#Time_War_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:52" }, { "id": "a66eedae-8b99-443a-a019-9c3b786c8028", "slug": "men-are-so-necessarily", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/men-are-so-necessarily", "text": "Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Blaise Pascal", "slug": "blaise-pascal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal" }, "book": { "title": "Pensees", "slug": "pensees", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es#Section_VI:_The_Philosophers_(339-424)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:50" }, { "id": "4a2e186b-3fd8-4c71-aa2a-6f2b5d4fd987", "slug": "you-cant-set", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese/the-covenant-of-water/you-cant-set", "text": "You can’t set out to achieve your goals without a little madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Abraham Verghese", "slug": "abraham-verghese", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese" }, "book": { "title": "The Covenant of Water", "slug": "the-covenant-of-water", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-verghese/the-covenant-of-water" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "purpose", "slug": "purpose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Verghese#The_Covenant_of_Water_(2023)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:39" }, { "id": "91bab38d-8764-486d-8141-45a34aadb077", "slug": "it-is-a-constant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl/the-coming-of-the-quantum-cats/it-is-a-constant", "text": "It is a constant wonder to me how crazy a sane person can get.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frederik Pohl", "slug": "frederik-pohl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl" }, "book": { "title": "The Coming of the Quantum Cats", "slug": "the-coming-of-the-quantum-cats", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl/the-coming-of-the-quantum-cats" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 177, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl#The_Coming_of_the_Quantum_Cats_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:30" }, { "id": "564d06f3-f580-4154-acc5-9e38ebcf7e19", "slug": "it-gets-tricky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan/mindplayers/it-gets-tricky", "text": "It gets tricky here, but it’s always seemed to be that sanity is, or can be, as relative as anything else. Sacrifice an animal to Zeus and predict the future from the formation of its entrails—do that as a general in ancient Greece hoping for victory in a coming battle and you’re prudent. Do it today and you’re a clinical paranoid and a mean one, too. Sanity, like customs and manners, seems to have a strong basis in the accepted standards of a particular time and place.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pat Cadigan", "slug": "pat-cadigan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan" }, "book": { "title": "Mindplayers", "slug": "mindplayers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan/mindplayers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 278, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pat_Cadigan#Mindplayers_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:08" }, { "id": "17e25da7-8b31-4ba9-9f48-913af899ca6a", "slug": "men-are-mad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons/men-are-mad", "text": "“Men are mad and gods are madder,” she told the grass, and the grass murmured its agreement.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Dance with Dragons", "slug": "a-dance-with-dragons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Dance_with_Dragons_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:56" }, { "id": "523ed81f-f20e-46d8-b4ae-5b7e86170b10", "slug": "is-it-so-far", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-game-of-thrones/is-it-so-far", "text": "Is it so far from madness to wisdom?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Game of Thrones", "slug": "a-game-of-thrones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-game-of-thrones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Game_of_Thrones_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:46" }, { "id": "031f9085-7f8c-4695-aa90-0e6822d1f509", "slug": "you-were-right", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-grant/plague/you-were-right", "text": "You were right, it’s one big open-air asylum. Virtue nodded solemnly and glanced back at the church. Yeah, but there’s a couple of saints mixed in with the crazies.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Grant", "slug": "michael-grant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-grant" }, "book": { "title": "Plague", "slug": "plague", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-grant/plague" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Plague_(2011_novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:21" }, { "id": "35b2b1ab-c967-4e2c-bcb5-6232816e4a4b", "slug": "youre-ten-pints", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/red-seas-under-red-skies/youre-ten-pints", "text": "You’re ten pints of crazy in a one-pint glass.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Scott Lynch", "slug": "scott-lynch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch" }, "book": { "title": "Red Seas Under Red Skies", "slug": "red-seas-under-red-skies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/red-seas-under-red-skies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 396, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scott_Lynch#Red_Seas_Under_Red_Skies_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:18" }, { "id": "08c25145-edc1-4d4d-b916-efbc755a4a83", "slug": "i-thought-inside", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ram-dass/be-here-now/i-thought-inside", "text": "I thought inside \"I must really be crazy, now — because craziness is where everybody agrees about something — except you!\" And yet I felt saner than I had ever felt, so I knew this was a new kind of craziness or perhaps a new kind of saneness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ram Dass", "slug": "ram-dass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ram-dass" }, "book": { "title": "Be Here Now", "slug": "be-here-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ram-dass/be-here-now" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ram_Dass#Be_Here_Now_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:16" }, { "id": "4fbaa0f1-d70d-4582-b8c3-173b7668d570", "slug": "they-raise-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-wailing-asteroid/they-raise-the", "text": "They raise the question of whether I’ve been crazy, and am suddenly sane, or whether I’ve been sane up to now, and have suddenly gone crazy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Murray Leinster", "slug": "murray-leinster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster" }, "book": { "title": "The Wailing Asteroid", "slug": "the-wailing-asteroid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-wailing-asteroid" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 12, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Leinster#The_Wailing_Asteroid_(1960)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:03" }, { "id": "f2c98720-057c-4fea-992e-1e7832fb6a3e", "slug": "in-the-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-overman-culture/in-the-country", "text": "In the country of the mad, the sane man is crazy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Cooper", "slug": "edmund-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "The Overman Culture", "slug": "the-overman-culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-overman-culture" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Cooper#The_Overman_Culture_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:00" }, { "id": "d2b7343f-1356-4fd7-82da-6179e0b79db9", "slug": "the-mad-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-tenth-planet/the-mad-can", "text": "The mad can make their own laws.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Cooper", "slug": "edmund-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "The Tenth Planet", "slug": "the-tenth-planet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-tenth-planet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Cooper#The_Tenth_Planet_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:00" }, { "id": "696815b8-b720-4f52-8748-3ae47cde8065", "slug": "and-yet-to-be-without", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-last-continent/and-yet-to-be-without", "text": "And yet to be without hope is almost to be without sanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Cooper", "slug": "edmund-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "The Last Continent", "slug": "the-last-continent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-last-continent" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Cooper#The_Last_Continent_(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:59" }, { "id": "508afa1c-5222-4cef-b99b-b8a111f3e591", "slug": "whos-the-mental", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-pilkington/the-moaning-of-life/whos-the-mental", "text": "Who's the mental one here? Is it me, or everyone else?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Karl Pilkington", "slug": "karl-pilkington", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-pilkington" }, "book": { "title": "The Moaning of Life", "slug": "the-moaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-pilkington/the-moaning-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Pilkington#Karl_on_Kids", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:48" }, { "id": "871a268f-68ef-4830-85ab-288dff958d5a", "slug": "there-are-times", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-name-of-the-wind/there-are-times", "text": "There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Patrick Rothfuss", "slug": "patrick-rothfuss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss" }, "book": { "title": "The Name of the Wind", "slug": "the-name-of-the-wind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-name-of-the-wind" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 123, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_Rothfuss#The_Name_of_the_Wind_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:08" }, { "id": "75b01707-d2a5-4be5-a899-a8095de7c7f7", "slug": "he-was-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rafael-sabatini/scaramouche/he-was-born", "text": "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rafael Sabatini", "slug": "rafael-sabatini", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rafael-sabatini" }, "book": { "title": "Scaramouche", "slug": "scaramouche", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rafael-sabatini/scaramouche" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rafael_Sabatini#Scaramouche_(1921)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:00" }, { "id": "bd3e3fb7-5144-489d-9385-9e5f9e902065", "slug": "perhaps-by-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/perhaps-by-this", "text": "Perhaps by this time the 14th century was not quite sane. If enlightened self-interest is the criterion of sanity, in the verdict of Michelet, “no epoch was more naturally mad.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Barbara W. Tuchman", "slug": "barbara-w-tuchman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman" }, "book": { "title": "A Distant Mirror", "slug": "a-distant-mirror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 332, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbara_Tuchman#A_Distant_Mirror_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:53" }, { "id": "485fb643-ff89-4504-afa9-be72abaaf15a", "slug": "too-far-a-retreat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/brain-wave/too-far-a-retreat", "text": "Too far a retreat from reality is insanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "Brain Wave", "slug": "brain-wave", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/brain-wave" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 82, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#Brain_Wave_(1954)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:42" }, { "id": "ea734154-5078-4fd6-b626-eb7633ef2b11", "slug": "you-see-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/warbreaker/you-see-the", "text": "You see the great thing about madness is that it's all in your head.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "Warbreaker", "slug": "warbreaker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/warbreaker" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Warbreaker_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:34" }, { "id": "d713b824-2eb7-4d68-83c8-2f47bc667197", "slug": "in-an-individual", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/in-an-individual", "text": "In an individual one would regard it as evidence of insanity to see someone repeatedly undertaking enterprises that resulted in his losing precisely what he claimed he was trying to achieve; it is not less lunatic to do it on the international scale, but if you’ve been catching the news lately you’ll have noticed it’s being done more than ever.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Stand On Zanzibar", "slug": "stand-on-zanzibar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Stand_on_Zanzibar_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:09" }, { "id": "72f99f07-8694-4fb9-8d84-ff1e45d90866", "slug": "among-the-other", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/quicksand/among-the-other", "text": "—Among the other things lunatics make: their own version of truth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Quicksand", "slug": "quicksand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/quicksand" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 64, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Quicksand_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:08" }, { "id": "6c38d69a-ae2c-4b2b-8b98-8c335e546b49", "slug": "if-i-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/byron-katie/loving-what-is/if-i-think", "text": "If I think you’re my problem, I’m insane.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Byron Katie", "slug": "byron-katie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/byron-katie" }, "book": { "title": "Loving What Is", "slug": "loving-what-is", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/byron-katie/loving-what-is" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "judging others", "slug": "judging-others", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/judging-others" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Byron_Katie#Loving_What_Is:_Four_Questions_That_Can_Change_Your_Life_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:44" }, { "id": "a1db720f-e02f-4948-8417-4ee817f7bd15", "slug": "thing-about-crazies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm/thing-about-crazies", "text": "Thing about crazies is, they’re crazy. You can’t even understand them in retrospect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Cosm", "slug": "cosm", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 262, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Cosm_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:24" }, { "id": "dea32aef-09da-4f11-b71a-7f61be4997b7", "slug": "just-because-somethings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact/just-because-somethings", "text": "Just because something’s crazy, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Artifact", "slug": "artifact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 228, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Artifact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:23" }, { "id": "c290f32c-68fa-4645-be46-521532817c3c", "slug": "that-in-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/that-in-you", "text": "That in you which recognizes madness as madness (even if it is your own) is sanity, is the arising awareness, is the end of insanity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "consciousness", "slug": "consciousness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_5,_The_Pain_Body", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:04" }, { "id": "5e5d52d7-c97f-4d78-86a5-90c3216c4acd", "slug": "the-collective-manifestations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/the-collective-manifestations", "text": "The collective manifestations of the insanity that lies at the heart of the human condition constitute the greater part of human history. It is to a large extent a history of madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_1,_The_Flowering_of_Human_Consciousness", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:02" }, { "id": "0a1c4b51-49cc-4cc0-8e10-5a0f40f961e1", "slug": "if-the-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/if-the-history", "text": "If the history of humanity were the clinical case history of a single human being, the diagnosis would have to be: chronic paranoid delusions, a pathological propensity to commit murder and acts of extreme violence and cruelty against his perceived “enemies” – his own unconsciousness projected outward. Criminally insane, with a few brief lucid intervals.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_1,_The_Flowering_of_Human_Consciousness", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:02" }, { "id": "4944976f-e2d8-4386-a156-2c6e8089b8a6", "slug": "science-and-technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/science-and-technology", "text": "Science and technology have magnified the destructive impact that the dysfunction of the human mind has upon the planet, other lifeforms, and upon humans themselves... the history of the twentieth century is where that dysfunction, that collective insanity, can be most clearly recognized.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "technology", "slug": "technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_1,_The_Flowering_of_Human_Consciousness", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:01" }, { "id": "1973687c-81d4-4793-b619-feb04b7852db", "slug": "by-the-year", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/by-the-year", "text": "By the year 1914... the highly intelligent human mind had invented not only the internal combustion engine, but also bombs, machine guns, submarines, flame throwers, and poison gas. Intelligence in the service of madness!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "technology", "slug": "technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_1,_The_Flowering_of_Human_Consciousness", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:01" }, { "id": "014e99a0-d992-45a5-a85c-dd03b05cf540", "slug": "the-human-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/the-human-mind", "text": "The human mind is highly intelligent. Yet its very intelligence is tainted by madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "intelligence", "slug": "intelligence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_1,_The_Flowering_of_Human_Consciousness", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:01" }, { "id": "8e80be9b-86f2-42c2-9682-1ac7f4a6432b", "slug": "to-recognize-ones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/to-recognize-ones", "text": "To recognize one’s own insanity, is of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "self-knowledge", "slug": "self-knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#A_New_Earth_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:00" }, { "id": "5fa3a978-ef4c-41d5-9da1-e2cec7d7b34f", "slug": "the-greatest-achievement", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/the-greatest-achievement", "text": "The greatest achievement of humanity is not its works of art, science, or technology, but the recognition of its own dysfunction, its own madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#A_New_Earth_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:00" }, { "id": "7afb97a7-1d1c-4593-81fb-7c549cf644c7", "slug": "the-worlds-gone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson/i-am-legend/the-worlds-gone", "text": "The world’s gone mad, he thought. The dead walk about and I think nothing of it.\n\nThe return of corpses has become trivial in import. How quickly one accepts the incredible if only one sees it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Matheson", "slug": "richard-matheson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson" }, "book": { "title": "I Am Legend", "slug": "i-am-legend", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-matheson/i-am-legend" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "reality", "slug": "reality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Matheson#I_Am_Legend_(1954)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:58" }, { "id": "c5dd2215-04d9-4d7b-8132-bec1f634d66d", "slug": "theres-only-a-thin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-jones/the-thin-red-line/theres-only-a-thin", "text": "There's only a thin red line between the sane and the mad.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Jones", "slug": "james-jones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-jones" }, "book": { "title": "The Thin Red Line", "slug": "the-thin-red-line", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-jones/the-thin-red-line" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Jones#The_Thin_Red_Line_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:50" }, { "id": "1efc27d8-5ee7-49df-9e82-28e6f85596df", "slug": "lunatics-are-writers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/ghostwritten/lunatics-are-writers", "text": "Lunatics are writers whose works write them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Ghostwritten", "slug": "ghostwritten", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/ghostwritten" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(author)#Ghostwritten_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:48" }, { "id": "18385e5f-daa1-40a0-86b3-816d33f99d7f", "slug": "in-this-century", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/the-names/in-this-century", "text": "In this century the writer has carried on a conversation with madness. We might almost say of the twentieth-century writer that he aspires to madness. Some have made it, of course, and they hold special places in our regard. To a writer, madness is a final distillation of self, a final editing down. It's the drowning out of false voices.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Don DeLillo", "slug": "don-delillo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo" }, "book": { "title": "The Names", "slug": "the-names", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/the-names" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Don_DeLillo#The_Names_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:32" }, { "id": "4c1733d0-215e-4c59-8f8a-aea77eadf132", "slug": "the-poet-is-in-command", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lionel-trilling/the-liberal-imagination/the-poet-is-in-command", "text": "The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lionel Trilling", "slug": "lionel-trilling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lionel-trilling" }, "book": { "title": "The Liberal Imagination", "slug": "the-liberal-imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lionel-trilling/the-liberal-imagination" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" }, { "name": "poetry", "slug": "poetry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lionel_Trilling#The_Liberal_Imagination_(1950)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:29" }, { "id": "548e8887-d428-483e-b70f-b437635a2626", "slug": "the-sane-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/the-sane-man", "text": "The sane man is simply a better liar than an insane man.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory David Roberts", "slug": "gregory-david-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Shantaram", "slug": "shantaram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:20" }, { "id": "d8d32b6f-2385-4df0-86d7-1b7f53a1d473", "slug": "but-most-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted/but-most-people", "text": "But most people pass over incrementally, making a series of perforations in the membrane between here and there until an opening exists. And who can resist an opening?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susanna Kaysen", "slug": "susanna-kaysen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen" }, "book": { "title": "Girl, Interrupted", "slug": "girl-interrupted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susanna_Kaysen#Girl,_Interrupted_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:17" }, { "id": "c5b96177-a454-4ce6-a8b0-fe5101e4b1be", "slug": "people-ask-how", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted/people-ask-how", "text": "People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well. I can't answer the real question. All I can tell them is, It's easy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susanna Kaysen", "slug": "susanna-kaysen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen" }, "book": { "title": "Girl, Interrupted", "slug": "girl-interrupted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susanna_Kaysen#Girl,_Interrupted_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:17" }, { "id": "784e7b74-d514-4b96-9608-e729cf11b441", "slug": "and-it-is-easy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted/and-it-is-easy", "text": "And it is easy to slip into a parallel universe. There are so many of them: worlds of the insane, the criminal, the crippled, the dying, perhaps of the dead as well. These worlds exist alongside this world and resemble it, but are not in it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susanna Kaysen", "slug": "susanna-kaysen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen" }, "book": { "title": "Girl, Interrupted", "slug": "girl-interrupted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "otherness", "slug": "otherness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/otherness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susanna_Kaysen#Girl,_Interrupted_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:17" }, { "id": "2732ac67-ad4f-4950-923f-429dc249efab", "slug": "another-odd-feature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted/another-odd-feature", "text": "Another odd feature of the parallel universe is that although it is invisible from this side, once you are in it you can easily see the world you came from.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susanna Kaysen", "slug": "susanna-kaysen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen" }, "book": { "title": "Girl, Interrupted", "slug": "girl-interrupted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susanna_Kaysen#Girl,_Interrupted_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:17" }, { "id": "2134a85b-5eb6-4381-b4d5-f1b3f59e669d", "slug": "often-an-entire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted/often-an-entire", "text": "Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire family can’t go into the hospital, one person is designated as crazy and goes inside. Then, depending on how the rest of the family is feeling, that person is kept inside or snatched out, to prove something about the family’s mental health.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susanna Kaysen", "slug": "susanna-kaysen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen" }, "book": { "title": "Girl, Interrupted", "slug": "girl-interrupted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "family", "slug": "family", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susanna_Kaysen#Girl,_Interrupted_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:17" }, { "id": "210b5f75-7cab-4895-b72c-b2f4a9fa00e5", "slug": "i-got-better", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted/i-got-better", "text": "I got better and Daisy didn't and I can't explain why. Maybe I was just flirting with madness the way I flirted with my teachers and classmates. I wasn't convinced I was crazy, though I feared I was. Some people say that having any conscious opinion on the matter is a mark of sanity, but I'm not sure that's true. I still think about it. I'll always have to think about it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susanna Kaysen", "slug": "susanna-kaysen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen" }, "book": { "title": "Girl, Interrupted", "slug": "girl-interrupted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susanna_Kaysen#Girl,_Interrupted_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:17" }, { "id": "c40d373d-317f-48f3-a5aa-1edc725ca41f", "slug": "she-may-be-mad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/accelerando/she-may-be-mad", "text": "She may be mad, he realizes abruptly. Not clinically insane, just at odds with the entire universe. Locked into a pathological view of her own role in reality.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Stross", "slug": "charles-stross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross" }, "book": { "title": "Accelerando", "slug": "accelerando", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/accelerando" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 289, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#Accelerando_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:05" }, { "id": "e4699d4d-272e-466d-950d-25082f7df790", "slug": "youre-crazy-undoubtedly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book/youre-crazy-undoubtedly", "text": "“You’re crazy!”\n\n“Undoubtedly. But look around you. You followed me in here. Who’s crazier? The crazy or the crazy who follows him?”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "Lost in a Good Book", "slug": "lost-in-a-good-book", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 262, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#Lost_in_a_Good_Book_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:59" }, { "id": "dd5cc269-a1c7-4d52-bb68-6e2da7e19a85", "slug": "dont-ever-call", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair/dont-ever-call", "text": "Don’t ever call me mad, Mycroft. I’m not mad. I’m just...well, differently moraled, that’s all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "The Eyre Affair", "slug": "the-eyre-affair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 157, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#The_Eyre_Affair_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:59" }, { "id": "08ead3f8-1a80-4312-9a3b-b373b54823e1", "slug": "its-a-mad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/david-copperfield/its-a-mad", "text": "It's a mad world. Mad as Bedlam, boy!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "David Copperfield", "slug": "david-copperfield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/david-copperfield" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Copperfield#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:45" }, { "id": "a777ff3c-fc78-4d5c-9b29-493e450d8416", "slug": "i-concluded-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-magic-labyrinth/i-concluded-that", "text": "I concluded that extreme mysticism was closely allied to madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip José Farmer", "slug": "philip-jose-farmer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer" }, "book": { "title": "The Magic Labyrinth", "slug": "the-magic-labyrinth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-magic-labyrinth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 94, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "mysticism", "slug": "mysticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mysticism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#The_Magic_Labyrinth_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:31" }, { "id": "90e83de9-069a-4c40-a585-4db98a7d73cb", "slug": "no-live-organism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-haunting-of-hill-house/no-live-organism", "text": "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shirley Jackson", "slug": "shirley-jackson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson" }, "book": { "title": "The Haunting of Hill House", "slug": "the-haunting-of-hill-house", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-haunting-of-hill-house" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "dreams", "slug": "dreams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson#The_Haunting_of_Hill_House_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:12" }, { "id": "c7683e78-66f1-43a6-9346-299d55368d81", "slug": "i-sometimes-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker/dracula/i-sometimes-think", "text": "I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bram Stoker", "slug": "bram-stoker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker" }, "book": { "title": "Dracula", "slug": "dracula", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker/dracula" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dracula_(novel)#Chapter_XX", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:03" }, { "id": "df086166-2efc-4a12-af99-7cbc250abce9", "slug": "depa-is-right", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/shatterpoint-star-wars-legends/depa-is-right", "text": "\"Depa is right: Jedi are insane.\" \"Ever since I came to this planet, people have been telling me how crazy I am. They've told me this so many times that I had started to wonder if it might be true. Now, though, I understand: you don't say this because it's true. Not even because you think it's true. You say it because you hope it's true. Because if I am insane, you aren't really the revolting slime-hearted vermin that, down deep, you know you are.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matthew Stover", "slug": "matthew-stover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover" }, "book": { "title": "Shatterpoint: Star Wars Legends", "slug": "shatterpoint-star-wars-legends", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/shatterpoint-star-wars-legends" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 286, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "self-deception", "slug": "self-deception-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-deception-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Stover#Shatterpoint_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:45" }, { "id": "0c5f25f1-5e56-4a64-9cfd-9ec70dd293f7", "slug": "we-sure-is-crazy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death/we-sure-is-crazy", "text": "“We sure is crazy,” someone would say. “If you ain’t crazy in dis here place, you gots to be nuts.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "Settling Accounts: In at the Death", "slug": "settling-accounts-in-at-the-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 88, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#Settling_Accounts:_The_Grapple_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:55" }, { "id": "eb4995ed-61ec-4e4e-97db-b29cc9115d78", "slug": "only-the-madman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy/only-the-madman", "text": "Only the madman is ever sure.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Shea", "slug": "robert-shea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea" }, "book": { "title": "The Illuminatus! Trilogy", "slug": "the-illuminatus-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "doubt", "slug": "doubt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/doubt" }, { "name": "self-confidence", "slug": "self-confidence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-confidence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy#Book_Two:_Zweitracht", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:33" }, { "id": "5c623644-095b-40ee-9356-1c26329c0adc", "slug": "everybody-is-crazy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy/everybody-is-crazy", "text": "\"Everybody is crazy,\" Saul said patiently, \"if you don't understand his motives.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Shea", "slug": "robert-shea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea" }, "book": { "title": "The Illuminatus! Trilogy", "slug": "the-illuminatus-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-shea/the-illuminatus-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy#Book_Two:_Zweitracht", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:33" }, { "id": "2b8f5f15-0597-403e-970a-f91f3a9df902", "slug": "you-dont-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea/you-dont-like", "text": "“You don’t like him?” asked Aufors, wondering whether the man had gone mad on the job or been hired because he was mad enough for the job. There were jobs where madness was an asset. The military was full of them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Singer From The Sea", "slug": "singer-from-the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 105, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Singer_from_the_Sea_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "6402ca67-b47a-477f-b1e8-545a6979935f", "slug": "from-what-ive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/from-what-ive", "text": "“From what I’ve read,” I said to him, “the world goes crazy every three or four decades. The trick is to survive until it goes sane again.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Sower", "slug": "parable-of-the-sower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 229, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "survival", "slug": "survival", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Sower_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:10" }, { "id": "0ff1dc43-7e60-4b0a-95f6-c62715e980ea", "slug": "sometimes-i-write", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/sometimes-i-write", "text": "Sometimes I write to keep from going crazy. There’s a world of things I don’t feel free to talk to anyone about.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Octavia E. Butler", "slug": "octavia-e-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Parable of the Sower", "slug": "parable-of-the-sower", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 52, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler#Parable_of_the_Sower_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:10" }, { "id": "4054f8f6-6787-48be-b439-75572a7a0431", "slug": "we-are-being", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz/we-are-being", "text": "We are being protected from hysteria. Isn't that what they call it? Maniacs! The world's been in a habitual state of crisis for fifty years. Fifty? What am I saying? It's been in a habitual state of crisis since the beginning — but for half a century now, almost unbearable. And why, for the love of God? What is the fundamental irritant, the essence of the tension? Political philosophies? Economics? Population pressure? Disparity of culture and creed? Ask a dozen experts, get a dozen answers. Now Lucifer again. Is the species congenitally insane, Brother?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter M. Miller Jr.", "slug": "walter-m-miller-jr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr" }, "book": { "title": "A Canticle for Leibowitz", "slug": "a-canticle-for-leibowitz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_M._Miller_Jr.#Fiat_Voluntas_Tua", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:41" }, { "id": "6afaeda9-0c2f-4023-b5fc-262f7761180c", "slug": "there-are-essential", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/still-life-with-woodpecker/there-are-essential", "text": "There are essential and inessential insanities. The latter are solar in character, the former are linked to the moon. Inessential insanities are a brittle amalgamation of ambition, aggression, and pre-adolescent anxiety — garbage that should have been dumped long ago. Essential insanities are those impulses one instinctively senses are virtuous and correct, even though peers may regard them as coo-coo. Inessential insanities get one in trouble with one's self. Essential insanities get one in trouble with others. In fact, it may be essential. Poetry, the best of it, is lunar and is concerned with the essential insanities. Journalism is solar... and is devoted to the inessential.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tom Robbins", "slug": "tom-robbins", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins" }, "book": { "title": "Still Life with Woodpecker", "slug": "still-life-with-woodpecker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/still-life-with-woodpecker" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "poetry", "slug": "poetry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins#Still_Life_with_Woodpecker_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:37" }, { "id": "dded4a52-b8db-4ed0-b972-c3c6282fb5e2", "slug": "i-saw-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/allen-ginsberg/howl/i-saw-the", "text": "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,\n\ndragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix\n\nangelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Allen Ginsberg", "slug": "allen-ginsberg", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/allen-ginsberg" }, "book": { "title": "Howl", "slug": "howl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/allen-ginsberg/howl" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg#Howl_(1956)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:33" }, { "id": "5bbf15e7-d345-4990-b681-118ebb931b91", "slug": "where-the-holy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-scott-bakker/the-warrior-prophet/where-the-holy", "text": "Where the holy take men for fools, the mad take the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "R. Scott Bakker", "slug": "r-scott-bakker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-scott-bakker" }, "book": { "title": "The Warrior-Prophet", "slug": "the-warrior-prophet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-scott-bakker/the-warrior-prophet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "holiness", "slug": "holiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/holiness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Warrior_Prophet#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:29" }, { "id": "34c940b0-c60c-4f02-b426-274952236402", "slug": "a-well-known-joke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/a-well-known-joke", "text": "A well-known joke - a fool who thought he was a grain of corn. After some time in a mental hospital he was cured; now he knew that he was not a grain, but a man. So they let him out; but soon after he came running back saying, 'I met a hen and I was afraid she would try to eat me.' The doctors tried to calm him down. 'What are you afraid of? You know you are not a grain, but a man.' The fool answered: 'Yes of course I know that, but does the hen know?'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Slavoj Žižek", "slug": "slavoj-zizek", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek" }, "book": { "title": "The Sublime Object of Ideology", "slug": "the-sublime-object-of-ideology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek#The_Sublime_Object_of_Ideology_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:17" }, { "id": "ed249ebd-0361-4a0b-add7-8a8e264257ea", "slug": "loonies-speak-their", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-white/the-tree-of-man/loonies-speak-their", "text": "Loonies speak their own language, like educated people.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Patrick White", "slug": "patrick-white", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-white" }, "book": { "title": "The Tree of Man", "slug": "the-tree-of-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-white/the-tree-of-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_White#The_Tree_of_Man_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:16" }, { "id": "99584911-16a5-4273-b5d2-9c60ad2836d4", "slug": "windle-shook-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/reaper-man/windle-shook-his", "text": "Windle shook his head sadly. Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind. (p. 262)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Reaper Man", "slug": "reaper-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/reaper-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reaper_Man#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:56" }, { "id": "5bc5a9dd-07fd-429e-b970-8ac99cbf54a7", "slug": "it-must-be-something", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/it-must-be-something", "text": "It must be something about high office. The altitude sends people mad. (p. 286)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Guards! Guards!", "slug": "guards-guards", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:55" }, { "id": "29b74f80-b497-41e3-9307-97d530e31f39", "slug": "not-everyone-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clive-james/may-week-was-in-june/not-everyone-who", "text": "Not everyone who wants to make a film is crazy, but almost everyone who is crazy wants to make a film. It is just one of the things that crazy people want to do, like starting a law suit or sending long, unsolicited letters to people in the public eye. A letter from a nutter has a recognisable format and orthography, as if all letter-writing nutters have to go through some kind of Top Gun nutter-letter-writing academy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clive James", "slug": "clive-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clive-james" }, "book": { "title": "May Week Was In June", "slug": "may-week-was-in-june", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clive-james/may-week-was-in-june" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 93, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "cinema", "slug": "cinema", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cinema" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clive_James#May_Week_Was_in_June_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:48" }, { "id": "20582392-c550-44a6-95d1-9106da6ef618", "slug": "it-was-van", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical/it-was-van", "text": "It was van Gogh's madness that prevented him from working; the paintings themselves are ineffably sane, if sanity is to be defined in terms of exact judgment of ends and means and the power of visual analysis.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Hughes", "slug": "robert-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Nothing If Not Critical", "slug": "nothing-if-not-critical", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Hughes#Nothing_If_Not_Critical_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:38" }, { "id": "440ee66c-7e12-484b-ad76-b2b054f38be9", "slug": "no-morrow-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring/no-morrow-said", "text": "“No,” Morrow said. “I can’t accept that. I don’t always agree with the Planners. But they aren’t killers.”\n\n“You think not?” Uvarov laughed again. “The survivalists—your ‘Planners’—are psychotic. Of course. As I am. And you. We are a fundamentally flawed species. Most of humanity, for most of its history, has been driven by a series of mass psychotic delusions. The labels changed, but the nature of the delusions barely varied...”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Baxter", "slug": "stephen-baxter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter" }, "book": { "title": "Ring", "slug": "ring", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 669, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Baxter#Ring_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:24" }, { "id": "906feb9d-3495-451c-a9eb-b2b36d9aab38", "slug": "it-was-in-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-chabon/wonder-boys/it-was-in-this", "text": "It was in this man's class that I first began to wonder if people who wrote fiction were not suffering from some kind of disorder--from what I've since come to think of, remembering the wild nocturnal rockings of Albert Vetch, as the midnight disease.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Chabon", "slug": "michael-chabon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-chabon" }, "book": { "title": "Wonder Boys", "slug": "wonder-boys", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-chabon/wonder-boys" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Chabon#Wonder_Boys_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:06" }, { "id": "dae8a706-e951-4334-a858-8ab9b3ab0197", "slug": "with-insanity-as-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-orton/the-orton-diaries/with-insanity-as-with", "text": "With insanity, as with vomit, it is the passerby who receives the inconvenience.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joe Orton", "slug": "joe-orton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-orton" }, "book": { "title": "The Orton Diaries", "slug": "the-orton-diaries", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-orton/the-orton-diaries" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joe_Orton#The_Edna_Welthorpe_letters", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:05" }, { "id": "f47c86fe-5068-4e35-bd64-e1c6e29e18d7", "slug": "that-had-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/way-station/that-had-not", "text": "That had not been the first time nor had it been the last, but all the years of killing boiled down in essence to that single moment — not the time that came after, but that long and terrible instant when he had watched the lines of men purposefully striding up the slope to kill him.\n\nIt had been in that moment that he had realized the insanity of war, the futile gesture that in time became all but meaningless, the unreasoning rage that must be nursed long beyond the memory of the incident that had caused the rage, the sheer illogic that one man, by death or misery, might prove a right or uphold a principle.\n\nSomewhere, he thought, on the long backtrack of history, the human race had accepted an insanity for a principle and had persisted in it until today that insanity-turned-principle stood ready to wipe out, if not the race itself, at least all of those things, both material and immaterial, that had been fashioned as symbols of humanity through many hard-won centuries.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford D. Simak", "slug": "clifford-d-simak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak" }, "book": { "title": "Way Station", "slug": "way-station", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/way-station" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_D._Simak#Way_Station_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:00" }, { "id": "61359bf4-33e0-4ddf-97c7-924370be55c0", "slug": "the-soldier-shook", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-land-leviathan/the-soldier-shook", "text": "The soldier shook his head, waxing philosophical. “It’s a madness, sir. We’ve all got it. It could go on until the last human being crawls away from the body of the chap he’s just bashed to bits with a stone. That’s what war is, sir—madness. You don’t think about what you’re doing. You forget, don’t you—you just go on killing and killing.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The Land Leviathan", "slug": "the-land-leviathan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-land-leviathan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 187, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Land_Leviathan_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:43" }, { "id": "7a678eda-45f9-4a50-beeb-e4f0ff8878b9", "slug": "i-could-scarcely", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-dragon-in-the-sword/i-could-scarcely", "text": "I could scarcely believe that these were the men who had done so much to influence the course of my own world’s history. It now seemed obvious that all of them were drugged in some way. They were acting like silly children. And yet I suppose I should have realized that it is in the nature of all such creatures to be at heart infantile. Only children believe they can achieve enormous power over the world without paying a price for that power. And the price so often is the sanity of the one who seeks it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The Dragon in the Sword", "slug": "the-dragon-in-the-sword", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-dragon-in-the-sword" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 641, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Dragon_in_the_Sword_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:39" }, { "id": "fba967de-bd76-460f-be6d-689d7fed718b", "slug": "myself-i-suspect", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona/myself-i-suspect", "text": "Myself, I suspect it’s a kind of madness: the madness that makes one repeat whatever one is trained to repeat.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "Neveryona", "slug": "neveryona", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 367, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#Nevery%C3%B3na_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:20" }, { "id": "74f8971e-d300-4f03-9995-68a0bd91098e", "slug": "maybe-thats-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-rice/memnoch-the-devil/maybe-thats-what", "text": "Maybe that's what Hell is. You go mad. And all your demons come and get you just as fast as you can think them up.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Rice", "slug": "anne-rice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-rice" }, "book": { "title": "Memnoch the Devil", "slug": "memnoch-the-devil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-rice/memnoch-the-devil" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "hell", "slug": "hell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hell" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Rice#Memnoch_The_Devil_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:13" }, { "id": "e45f006f-e63e-4ec1-9c7d-48de516eaa28", "slug": "vulgar-people-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-man-who-was-thursday/vulgar-people-are", "text": "Vulgar people are never mad. I'm vulgar myself, and I know. I am now going on shore to stand a drink to everybody here.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "The Man Who Was Thursday", "slug": "the-man-who-was-thursday", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-man-who-was-thursday" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday#Ch._XII_:_The_Earth_in_Anarchy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:54" }, { "id": "81baaec0-028c-4d3c-9315-0074d6f47fcb", "slug": "i-have-a-suspicion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-man-who-was-thursday/i-have-a-suspicion", "text": "I have a suspicion that you are all mad … but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "The Man Who Was Thursday", "slug": "the-man-who-was-thursday", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-man-who-was-thursday" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "friendship", "slug": "friendship", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday#Ch._XII_:_The_Earth_in_Anarchy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:54" }, { "id": "539c9131-0f1a-4eb3-8b58-be6a8a4bca77", "slug": "somewhere-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang/somewhere-in-the", "text": "“Somewhere in the depths of solitude, beyond wilderness and freedom, lay the trap of madness.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Abbey", "slug": "edward-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey" }, "book": { "title": "The Monkey Wrench Gang", "slug": "the-monkey-wrench-gang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey#The_Monkey_Wrench_Gang_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:31" }, { "id": "1e09178f-b701-4a6c-b616-51993998ebcd", "slug": "growth-for-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/desert-solitaire/growth-for-the", "text": "Growth for the sake of growth is a cancerous madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Abbey", "slug": "edward-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey" }, "book": { "title": "Desert Solitaire", "slug": "desert-solitaire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/desert-solitaire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 114, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "economy", "slug": "economy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/economy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey#Desert_Solitaire_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:30" }, { "id": "70353305-b94a-4546-a976-9e12296a38fe", "slug": "madness-is-locked", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/an-american-dream/madness-is-locked", "text": "Madness is locked beneath. It goes into tissues, is swallowed by the cells. The cells go mad. Cancer is their flag. Cancer is the growth of madness denied.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Mailer", "slug": "norman-mailer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer" }, "book": { "title": "An American Dream", "slug": "an-american-dream", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/an-american-dream" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "illness", "slug": "illness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer#An_American_Dream_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:14" }, { "id": "46e373ed-d43f-4ea0-bfd1-7ccdbd9e45de", "slug": "i-had-a-quick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/an-american-dream/i-had-a-quick", "text": "I had a quick grasp of the secret to sanity — it had become the ability to hold the maximum of impossible combinations in one's mind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Mailer", "slug": "norman-mailer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer" }, "book": { "title": "An American Dream", "slug": "an-american-dream", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/an-american-dream" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "paradox", "slug": "paradox", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradox" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer#An_American_Dream_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:14" }, { "id": "8506386d-d087-4756-a447-86a73189d8b1", "slug": "the-juniper-scented-liquor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/city-of-illusions/the-juniper-scented-liquor", "text": "The juniper-scented liquor had volatilized his thoughts; he should be thinking that madness caused this man to call himself a king, but was thinking rather that kingship had driven this man mad.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ursula K. Le Guin", "slug": "ursula-k-le-guin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin" }, "book": { "title": "City of Illusions", "slug": "city-of-illusions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/city-of-illusions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#City_of_Illusions_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:52" }, { "id": "ea06f557-e49c-4e59-b350-fd21c28a339f", "slug": "the-sign-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/the-sign-said", "text": "The sign said:\n\nHold stick near centre of its length. Moisten pointed end in mouth. Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum. Use gentle in-out motion.\n\n\"It seemed to me,\" said Wonko the Sane, \"that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish", "slug": "so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_31", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:28" }, { "id": "4cb1aab8-e90e-4adb-846c-fc33cbebcb92", "slug": "outside-the-hospital", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller/catch-22/outside-the-hospital", "text": "Outside the hospital the war was still going on. Men went mad and were rewarded with medals.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Heller", "slug": "joseph-heller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller" }, "book": { "title": "Catch-22", "slug": "catch-22", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller/catch-22" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Heller#Catch-22_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:11" }, { "id": "a32f5b24-e727-49cb-8f7a-2e2e6955177d", "slug": "madness-is-an-illness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/madness-is-an-illness", "text": "Madness is an illness of the brain, not of the mind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Joubert", "slug": "joseph-joubert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert" }, "book": { "title": "The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert", "slug": "the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Joubert#The_Notebooks_of_Joseph_Joubert_(1883)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:10" }, { "id": "b9b234c6-797a-4f86-9aa5-8ed727de68ea", "slug": "when-men-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert/when-men-are", "text": "When men are imbeciles, the one who is mad dominates the others.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Joubert", "slug": "joseph-joubert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert" }, "book": { "title": "The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert", "slug": "the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-joubert/the-notebooks-of-joseph-joubert" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Joubert#The_Notebooks_of_Joseph_Joubert_(1883)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:06" }, { "id": "5118c25c-56be-4d71-91a7-2e7c8f76b8d1", "slug": "nelson-people-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike/rabbit-remembered/nelson-people-are", "text": "[Nelson] \"...People are crazy. At times when I'm with clients I can't see the difference between them and me, except for the structure we're all in. I get paid, a little, and they get taken care of, a little.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Updike", "slug": "john-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit Remembered", "slug": "rabbit-remembered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-updike/rabbit-remembered" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_Remembered_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:31" }, { "id": "d0deb652-10ce-4d0f-81f7-49268dd52195", "slug": "it-is-a-widespread", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/it-is-a-widespread", "text": "It is a widespread idea that people who are unusually cruel must be insane, though the corollary of that would be that anybody who is unusually compassionate must be insane.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Deptford Trilogy", "slug": "the-deptford-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Deptford_Trilogy#(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:14" }, { "id": "2c58fef1-3f91-4139-85c4-15973585749d", "slug": "all-passion-is-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/the-secret-agent/all-passion-is-lost", "text": "All passion is lost now. The world is mediocre, limp, without force. And madness and despair are a force. And force is a crime in the eyes of the fools, the weak and the silly who rule the roost. You are mediocre. Verloc, whose affair the police has managed to smother so nicely, was mediocre. And the police murdered him. He was mediocre. Everybody is mediocre. Madness and despair! Give me that for a lever, and I'll move the world. Ossipon, you have my cordial scorn. You are incapable of conceiving even what the fat-fed citizen would call a crime. You have no force.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Conrad", "slug": "joseph-conrad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad" }, "book": { "title": "The Secret Agent", "slug": "the-secret-agent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/the-secret-agent" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "mediocrity", "slug": "mediocrity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mediocrity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad#The_Secret_Agent_(1907)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:12" }, { "id": "3dd79f7d-0fc6-40ab-ab84-5241badbce34", "slug": "anna-said-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-october-country/anna-said-must", "text": "Anna said, “Must they have a reason?”\n\n“No, not if they’re insane, no,” said Juliet. “In that case no reasons are necessary.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ray Bradbury", "slug": "ray-bradbury", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury" }, "book": { "title": "The October Country", "slug": "the-october-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-october-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury#The_October_Country_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:11" }, { "id": "a0440b48-ea6d-4ab0-b96d-498ed9b4f4e7", "slug": "the-only-difference", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/kingdom-of-fear/the-only-difference", "text": "The only difference between the Sane and the Insane, is IN and yet within this world, the Sane have the power to have the Insane locked up.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hunter S. Thompson", "slug": "hunter-s-thompson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson" }, "book": { "title": "Kingdom of Fear", "slug": "kingdom-of-fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hunter-s-thompson/kingdom-of-fear" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson#Kingdom_of_Fear:_Loathsome_Secrets_of_a_Star-crossed_Child_in_the_Final_Days_of_the_American_Century_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:10" }, { "id": "6f17b99e-b066-44a2-8648-74b56d1b5270", "slug": "generally-speaking-espionage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night/generally-speaking-espionage", "text": "Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Mother Night", "slug": "mother-night", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Mother_Night_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:36" }, { "id": "a86f6c5e-7b62-4693-b3bf-74edd898fa41", "slug": "i-liked-him", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/i-liked-him", "text": "\"I liked him very much,\" said Constant.\n\n\"The insane, on occasion, are not without their charms,\" said Beatrice.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 41, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "6a2dd546-6b7b-47f0-afaf-47a1cbe95dff", "slug": "all-people-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night/all-people-are", "text": "\"All people are insane,\" he said. \"They will do anything at any time, and God help anybody who looks for reasons.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Mother Night", "slug": "mother-night", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Mother_Night_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "e0cdd453-005b-49c5-9e5d-969f14b53935", "slug": "you-think-im-insane", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano/you-think-im-insane", "text": "\"You think I'm insane?\" said Finnerty. Apparently he wanted more of a reaction than Paul had given him.\n\n\"You're still in touch. I guess that's the test.\"\n\n\"Barely — barely.\"\n\n\"A psychiatrist could help. There's a good man in Albany.\"\n\nFinnerty shook his head. \"He'd pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.\" He nodded, \"Big, undreamed-of things — the people on the edge see them first.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Player Piano", "slug": "player-piano", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 86, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "being different", "slug": "being-different", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Player_Piano_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:34" }, { "id": "abe349b2-8abf-4efb-8fbf-b813c1d6849b", "slug": "everyone-is-more", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/plain-tales-from-the-hills/everyone-is-more", "text": "Everyone is more or less mad on one point.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rudyard Kipling", "slug": "rudyard-kipling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling" }, "book": { "title": "Plain Tales from the Hills", "slug": "plain-tales-from-the-hills", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rudyard-kipling/plain-tales-from-the-hills" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling#Plain_Tales_from_the_Hills_(1888)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:25" }, { "id": "77bfdae6-7841-40cd-afd2-8cbda6f5e9d8", "slug": "a-genuine-first-hand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-james/the-varieties-of-religious-experience/a-genuine-first-hand", "text": "A genuine first-hand religious experience like this is bound to be a heterodoxy to its witnesses, the prophet appearing as a mere lonely madman. If his doctrine prove contagious enough to spread to any others, it becomes a definite and labeled heresy. But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution, it becomes itself an orthodoxy; and when a religion has become an orthodoxy, its day of inwardness is over: the spring is dry; the faithful live at second hand exclusively and stone the prophets in their turn. The new church, in spite of whatever human goodness it may foster, can be henceforth counted on as a staunch ally in every attempt to stifle the spontaneous religious spirit, and to stop all later bubblings of the fountain from which in purer days it drew its own supply of inspiration.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William James", "slug": "william-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-james" }, "book": { "title": "The Varieties of Religious Experience", "slug": "the-varieties-of-religious-experience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-james/the-varieties-of-religious-experience" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_James#The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience_(1902)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:15" }, { "id": "dd120357-a2bf-4f65-b8a0-581cdc6ca3fb", "slug": "are-the-mystics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything/are-the-mystics", "text": "Are the mystics and sages insane? Because they all tell variations on the same story, don't they? The story of awakening one morning and discovering you are one with the All, in a timeless and eternal and infinite fashion. Yes, maybe they are crazy, these divine fools. Maybe they are mumbling idiots in the face of the Abyss. Maybe they need a nice, understanding therapist. Yes, I'm sure that would help. But then, I wonder. Maybe the evolutionary sequence really is from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit, each transcending and including, each with a greater depth and greater consciousness and wider embrace. And in the highest reaches of evolution, maybe, just maybe, an individual's consciousness does indeed touch infinity—a total embrace of the entire Kosmos—a Kosmic consciousness that is Spirit awakened to its own true nature. It's at least plausible. And tell me: is that story, sung by mystics and sages the world over, any crazier than the scientific materialism story, which is that the entire sequence is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing? Listen very carefully: just which of those two stories actually sounds totally insane?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ken Wilber", "slug": "ken-wilber", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber" }, "book": { "title": "A Brief History of Everything", "slug": "a-brief-history-of-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 42, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "spirituality", "slug": "spirituality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/spirituality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber#A_Brief_History_of_Everything_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:06" }, { "id": "5bfb5ae4-411a-4a0c-bf96-40631c85289f", "slug": "they-danced-down", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road/they-danced-down", "text": "They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes \"Awww!\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Kerouac", "slug": "jack-kerouac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac" }, "book": { "title": "On the Road", "slug": "on-the-road", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "passion", "slug": "passion-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/passion-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac#On_the_Road_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:29" }, { "id": "94d15a12-4325-4e35-8f11-49a7d79b0b9c", "slug": "between-the-self", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/salman-rushdie/the-ground-beneath-her-feet/between-the-self", "text": "\"Between the self and the other, between the visionary and the psychopath, between the lover and his love, between the overworld and the underworld, falls the shadow.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Salman Rushdie", "slug": "salman-rushdie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/salman-rushdie" }, "book": { "title": "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", "slug": "the-ground-beneath-her-feet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/salman-rushdie/the-ground-beneath-her-feet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Ground_Beneath_Her_Feet#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:27" }, { "id": "c2e785e5-7046-447b-b876-44b1bb01d6f2", "slug": "for-the-philosopher", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/orlando/for-the-philosopher", "text": "For the Philosopher is right who says that nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy; and he goes on to opine that one is twin fellow to the other; and draws from this the conclusion that all extremes of feeling are allied to madness; and so bids us take refuge in the true Church (in his view the Anabaptists), which is the only harbor, port, anchorage, etc., he said, for those tossed on this sea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virginia Woolf", "slug": "virginia-woolf", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf" }, "book": { "title": "Orlando", "slug": "orlando", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/orlando" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "melancholy", "slug": "melancholy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/melancholy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orlando:_A_Biography#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:17" }, { "id": "9a5a219e-2c91-4b83-a642-548cfd67554f", "slug": "i-think-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller/something-happened/i-think-that", "text": "I think that maybe in every company today there is always at least one person who is going crazy slowly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Heller", "slug": "joseph-heller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller" }, "book": { "title": "SOMETHING HAPPENED", "slug": "something-happened", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller/something-happened" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Something_Happened#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:13" }, { "id": "65dd5b85-3dde-4d74-aae0-7ae49821612a", "slug": "mental-illness-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis/mental-illness-is-not", "text": "Mental illness is not funny.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Valis", "slug": "valis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "illness", "slug": "illness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#VALIS_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:08" }, { "id": "5caf15ca-b3b9-4650-9e58-12c9787fff74", "slug": "the-distinction-between", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis/the-distinction-between", "text": "The distinction between sanity and insanity is narrower than the razor's edge, sharper than a hound's tooth, more agile than a mule deer. It is more elusive than the merest phantom. Perhaps it does not even exist; perhaps it is a phantom.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Valis", "slug": "valis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#VALIS_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:08" }, { "id": "5b0fec51-3af1-481e-a41b-aa4b07e11135", "slug": "crazy-people-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis/crazy-people-do-not", "text": "Crazy people do not apply the principle of scientific parsimony... they shoot for the baroque.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Valis", "slug": "valis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#VALIS_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:08" }, { "id": "3c6d5357-5e2a-4136-b60f-ab2c85b1295c", "slug": "certainly-it-constitutes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis/certainly-it-constitutes", "text": "Certainly it constitutes bad news if the people who agree with you are buggier than batshit.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Valis", "slug": "valis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#VALIS_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:08" }, { "id": "2bc317fb-7e5b-418b-a497-405063765ee3", "slug": "madness-has-its", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis/madness-has-its", "text": "Madness has its own dynamism. It just goes on.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Valis", "slug": "valis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#VALIS_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:08" }, { "id": "25f2b449-d9f1-4033-a076-24c9ac89fe00", "slug": "madness-like-small", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-transmigration-of-timothy-archer/madness-like-small", "text": "Madness, like small fish, runs in hosts, in vast numbers of instances.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer", "slug": "the-transmigration-of-timothy-archer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-transmigration-of-timothy-archer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 236, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Transmigration_of_Timothy_Archer_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:08" }, { "id": "e4d99162-2b5c-4789-9ea9-9f35d4dca35c", "slug": "it-is-sometimes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis/it-is-sometimes", "text": "It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Valis", "slug": "valis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/valis" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "reality", "slug": "reality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#VALIS_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:07" }, { "id": "a9e7f47b-a51f-4b2f-bc52-e02ddfd82370", "slug": "sometimes-i-wish", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly/sometimes-i-wish", "text": "“Sometimes I wish I knew how to go crazy. I forget how.”\n\n“It’s a lost art,” Hank said. “Maybe there’s an instruction manual on it.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "A Scanner Darkly", "slug": "a-scanner-darkly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/a-scanner-darkly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 56, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#A_Scanner_Darkly_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:07" }, { "id": "55007f82-94df-441e-ad1d-055494b2f071", "slug": "insanity-to-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/martian-time-slip/insanity-to-have", "text": "Insanity — to have to construct a picture of one's life, by making inquiries of others.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Martian Time-Slip", "slug": "martian-time-slip", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/martian-time-slip" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#Martian_Time-Slip_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:04" }, { "id": "ac8fbcd7-7f34-4cbc-b705-445d72468cad", "slug": "what-does-it-mean", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle/what-does-it-mean", "text": "What does it mean, insane? A legal definition. What do I mean? I feel it, see it, but what is it? It is something they do, something they are. It is their unconsciousness...Do they ignore parts of reality? Yes. But it is more. It is their plans...Their view; it is cosmic...They see through the here, the now, into the vast black deep beyond, the unchanging. And that is fatal to life. Because eventually there will be no life; there was once only the dust particles of space, the hot hydrogen gases, nothing more, and it will come again.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Man in the High Castle", "slug": "the-man-in-the-high-castle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:03" }, { "id": "7d1be812-907d-471f-a7cd-6cebe5d16e8f", "slug": "insanity-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle/insanity-is-not", "text": "(Insanity) is not hubris, not pride; it is inflation of the ego to its ultimate — confusion between him who worships and that which is worshipped. Man has not eaten God; God has eaten man.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Man in the High Castle", "slug": "the-man-in-the-high-castle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:03" }, { "id": "728377ee-db1a-4619-a551-98b019f32251", "slug": "perhaps-if-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle/perhaps-if-you", "text": "Perhaps if you know you are insane then you are not insane.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Man in the High Castle", "slug": "the-man-in-the-high-castle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "self-knowledge", "slug": "self-knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:03" }, { "id": "1967cea6-a6d6-487f-812e-8ade279469c3", "slug": "to-save-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle/to-save-one", "text": "To save one life, Mr. Tagomi had to take two. The logical, balanced mind cannot make sense of that. A kindly man like Mr. Tagomi could be driven insane by the implications of such reality.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Man in the High Castle", "slug": "the-man-in-the-high-castle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:03" }, { "id": "d763bd79-6a6c-407c-9554-c5fbe6a2f0a4", "slug": "ramsey-could-contain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/the-dragon-in-the-sea/ramsey-could-contain", "text": "Ramsey could contain the question no longer. \"What's your definition of sanity, Skipper?\" \"The ability to swim,\" said Sparrow....\"That means the sane person has to understand currents, has to know what's required in different waters.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "The Dragon in the Sea", "slug": "the-dragon-in-the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/the-dragon-in-the-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert#The_Dragon_in_the_Sea_(1956)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:55" }, { "id": "a6302f29-a43a-47ae-9af3-e00ba1095bb2", "slug": "power-bases-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/power-bases-are", "text": "Power bases are very dangerous because they attract people who are truly insane, people who seek power only for the sake of power.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "God Emperor of Dune", "slug": "god-emperor-of-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#God_Emperor_of_Dune_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:54" }, { "id": "f617fe07-239e-4152-94f2-64bed11fb024", "slug": "all-my-means", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/all-my-means", "text": "All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 205, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "obsession", "slug": "obsession", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obsession" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Moby-Dick_(41)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "b1ff4cc4-cfd8-414f-83ef-d8e17baa2392", "slug": "there-is-no-folly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/there-is-no-folly", "text": "There is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 428, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#The_Grand_Armada_(87)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "b1176470-f4ea-4ff6-a428-6f955fc89687", "slug": "human-madness-is-oftentimes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/human-madness-is-oftentimes", "text": "Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 204, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Moby-Dick_(41)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "5c6766e7-b0bb-4771-a56b-d4a033670ba2", "slug": "the-sea-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/the-sea-had", "text": "The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man's insanity is heaven's sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 462, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#The_Castaway_(93)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "1c593f10-7451-428a-8b0e-5cfd337bde17", "slug": "give-not-thyself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/give-not-thyself", "text": "Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 473, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#The_Try-Works_(96)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "8f30da0e-39d6-43bb-a4d4-785595b376c7", "slug": "sanity-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/lila/sanity-is-not", "text": "Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Lila", "slug": "lila", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/lila" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Lila_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:34" }, { "id": "d4783b49-a57c-41e2-ad18-d69ac9ea2aa6", "slug": "a-rush-of-wind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/a-rush-of-wind", "text": "A rush of wind comes furiously now, down from the mountaintop. \"The ancient Greeks,\" I say, \"who were the inventors of classical reason, knew better than to use it exclusively to foretell the future. They listened to the wind and predicted the future from that. That sounds insane now. But why should the inventors of reason sound insane?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:33" }, { "id": "ccb6d572-639e-464a-bb63-13040f042976", "slug": "when-you-look", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/when-you-look", "text": "When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he's insane, which is not to see him at all. To see him you must see what he saw and when you are trying to see the vision of an insane man, an oblique route is the only way to come at it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:33" }, { "id": "55e6414c-3737-4fe4-9839-6f0061ed1d15", "slug": "i-think-present-day", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/i-think-present-day", "text": "I think present-day reason is an analogue of the flat earth of the medieval period. If you go too far beyond it you're presumed to fall off, into insanity. And people are very much afraid of that. I think this fear of insanity is comparable to the fear people once had of falling off the edge of the world. Or the fear of heretics. There's a very close analogue there.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:33" }, { "id": "00195bf7-95ab-4679-998c-1b35b9f16e8c", "slug": "there-is-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/there-is-only", "text": "There is only one kind of person, Phædrus said, who accepts or rejects the mythos in which he lives. And the definition of that person, when he has rejected the mythos, Phædrus said, is \"insane.\" To go outside the mythos is to become insane.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "mythology", "slug": "mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:33" }, { "id": "c3063e46-aade-49b8-a43b-a698a911547f", "slug": "the-rewards-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis/stanley-and-the-women/the-rewards-for", "text": "The rewards for being sane are not very many but knowing what's funny is one of them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kingsley Amis", "slug": "kingsley-amis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis" }, "book": { "title": "Stanley And The Women", "slug": "stanley-and-the-women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis/stanley-and-the-women" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 147, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kingsley_Amis#Stanley_and_the_Women_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:04" }, { "id": "82474e5d-207a-4837-b0fc-20b95a4656df", "slug": "internally-in-itself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis/stanley-and-the-women/internally-in-itself", "text": "Internally, in itself, madness is an artistic desert. Nothing of any general interest can be said about it. Like sex. But the effects it has on the world outside it can be very interesting indeed. It has no other valid literary use.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kingsley Amis", "slug": "kingsley-amis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis" }, "book": { "title": "Stanley And The Women", "slug": "stanley-and-the-women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis/stanley-and-the-women" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kingsley_Amis#Stanley_and_the_Women_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:04" }, { "id": "28d7fc90-068e-4642-8177-95ca3ff1acd3", "slug": "sane-people-did", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/sane-people-did", "text": "Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Middlemarch", "slug": "middlemarch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Middlemarch_(1871-72)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:51" }, { "id": "1cb6df9e-7beb-455c-92b7-fb3deedb8e93", "slug": "sometimes-i-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/as-i-lay-dying/sometimes-i-think", "text": "Sometimes I think it ain’t none of us pure crazy and ain’t none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It’s like it ain’t so much what a fellow does, but it’s the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "As I Lay Dying", "slug": "as-i-lay-dying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/as-i-lay-dying" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "public opinion", "slug": "public-opinion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/public-opinion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#As_I_Lay_Dying_(1930)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:44" }, { "id": "8529b93d-246f-49cc-9ebb-b5d9bebddbe9", "slug": "for-a-long-while", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/for-a-long-while", "text": "For a long while I have lived with the notion that I was the most normal being that ever existed. This notion gave me the taste, even the passion for being unproductive: what was the use of being prized in a world inhabited by madmen, a world mired in mania and stupidity? For whom was one to bother, and to what end? It remains to be seen if I have quite freed myself from this certitude, salvation in the absolute, ruin in the immediate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "fe346f79-d9af-4b5e-b366-38963d8265a7", "slug": "so-long-as-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/so-long-as-man", "text": "So long as man is protected by madness he functions and flourishes, but when he frees himself from the fruitful tyranny of fixed ideas, he is lost, ruined.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "A Short History of Decay", "slug": "a-short-history-of-decay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "obsession", "slug": "obsession", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obsession" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#A_Short_History_of_Decay_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:40" }, { "id": "b89dec1d-8356-4c8e-bcf3-96f8983de8e3", "slug": "as-incompetent-in-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/as-incompetent-in-life", "text": "As incompetent in life as in death, I loathe myself and in this loathing I dream of another life, another death. And for having sought to be a sage such as never was, I am only a madman among the mad.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "A Short History of Decay", "slug": "a-short-history-of-decay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#A_Short_History_of_Decay_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:40" }, { "id": "f9ce608b-1fa5-426e-bc47-3b4abc3acdc8", "slug": "science-does-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/science-does-not", "text": "Science does not give Don Quixote what he demands of it. \"Then let him not make the demand,\" it will be said, \"let him resign himself, let him accept life and truth as they are.\" But he does not accept them as they are, and he asks for signs, urged thereto by Sancho, who stands by his side. And it is not that Don Quixote does not understand what those understand who talk thus to him, those who succeed in resigning themselves and accepting rational life and rational truth. No, it is that the needs of his heart are greater. Pedantry? Who knows!... And he wishes, unhappy man, to rationalize the irrational and irrationalize the rational. And he sinks into despair of the critical century whose two greatest victims were Nietzsche and Tolstoi. And through this despair he reaches the heroic fury of which Giordano Bruno spoke — that intellectual Don Quixote who escaped from the cloister — and became an awakener of sleeping souls (dormitantium animorum excubitor), as the ex-Dominican said of himself — he who wrote: \"Heroic love is the property of those superior natures who are called insane (insano) not because they do not know, but because they over-know (soprasanno).\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "despair", "slug": "despair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#Conclusion_:_Don_Quixote_in_the_Contemporary_European_Tragi-Comedy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:24" }, { "id": "8ba5ba17-105c-4a3b-ad27-6eef68ab3f62", "slug": "not-without-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/not-without-reason", "text": "Not without reason did he who had the right to do so speak of the foolishness of the cross. Foolishness, without a doubt, foolishness. And the American humorist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, was not altogether wide of the mark in making one of the characters in his ingenious conversations say that he thought better of those who were confined in a lunatic asylum on account of religious mania than of those who, while professing the same religious principles, kept their wits and appeared to enjoy life very well outside the asylums. But those who are at large, are they not really, thanks to God, mad too? Are there not mild madnesses, which not only permit us to mix with our neighbors without danger to society, but which rather enable us to do so, for by means of them we are able to attribute a meaning and finality to life and society?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#X_:_Religion,_the_Mythology_of_the_Beyond_and_the_Apocatastasis", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:23" }, { "id": "25f64a3e-568b-4d1a-aa99-ef8cf0b66401", "slug": "and-the-conversion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-the-conversion", "text": "And the conversion of the other Don Quixote — he who was converted only to die — was possible because he was mad, and it was his madness, and not his death or his conversion that immortalized him, earning him forgiveness for this crime of having been born. Felix culpa! And neither was his madness cured, but only transformed. His death was his last knightly adventure; in dying he stormed heaven, which suffereth violence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "immortality", "slug": "immortality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#Conclusion_:_Don_Quixote_in_the_Contemporary_European_Tragi-Comedy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:23" }, { "id": "c4fbe87d-4431-4b9b-ba1f-4f2cba188050", "slug": "being-in-a-minority", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/being-in-a-minority", "text": "Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:15" }, { "id": "c45507a0-302d-4329-97ff-196d9dca9318", "slug": "how-can-i-help", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/how-can-i-help", "text": "\"How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.\"\n\n\"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "totalitarianism", "slug": "totalitarianism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_2", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:15" }, { "id": "e5c83f6b-e31c-46a8-bdd1-7b6a4850fa8d", "slug": "he-wondered-as-he-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/he-wondered-as-he-had", "text": "He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is unalterable. He might be ALONE in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "doubt", "slug": "doubt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/doubt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_7", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:13" }, { "id": "9d189f3f-91e2-4aa9-aee2-8a4a38eea0bf", "slug": "moping-melancholy-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost/moping-melancholy-and", "text": "Moping melancholy\n\nAnd moon-struck madness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Milton", "slug": "john-milton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton" }, "book": { "title": "Paradise Lost", "slug": "paradise-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "sadness", "slug": "sadness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sadness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost#Book_XI", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:48" }, { "id": "eeab2ef0-b68c-4f3b-9f66-e1bac44d4f98", "slug": "ever-as-before", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/sartor-resartus/ever-as-before", "text": "Ever, as before, does Madness remain a mysterious-terrific, altogether infernal boiling-up of the Nether Chaotic Deep, through this fair-painted Vision of Creation, which swims thereon, which we name the Real.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Carlyle", "slug": "thomas-carlyle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle" }, "book": { "title": "Sartor Resartus", "slug": "sartor-resartus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-carlyle/sartor-resartus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle#Sartor_Resartus_(1833%E2%80%931834)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:44" }, { "id": "8093ba84-b3df-46be-8bce-58f0cc3c25b2", "slug": "exceptional-people-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying/exceptional-people-are", "text": "Exceptional people are often called crazy by the ordinary world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Erica Jong", "slug": "erica-jong", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong" }, "book": { "title": "Fear of Flying", "slug": "fear-of-flying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" }, { "name": "genius", "slug": "genius", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/genius" }, { "name": "being different", "slug": "being-different", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erica_Jong#Fear_of_Flying_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:39" }, { "id": "3bf89449-843c-4346-a455-1db212bf2af5", "slug": "everyones-a-little", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying/everyones-a-little", "text": "Everyone's a little crazy when you get inside their head... it's only a matter of degree.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Erica Jong", "slug": "erica-jong", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong" }, "book": { "title": "Fear of Flying", "slug": "fear-of-flying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erica_Jong#Fear_of_Flying_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:39" }, { "id": "1072850e-52de-4ee8-8d32-983e43abc69e", "slug": "lord-what-a-strange", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-napoleon-of-notting-hill/lord-what-a-strange", "text": "Lord! what a strange world in which a man cannot remain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", "slug": "the-napoleon-of-notting-hill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/the-napoleon-of-notting-hill" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#The_Napoleon_of_Notting_Hill_(1904)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:33" }, { "id": "af0d521d-38a5-476d-bb6b-e7899765e552", "slug": "the-majority-is-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/ringworld/the-majority-is-always", "text": "The majority is always sane.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Larry Niven", "slug": "larry-niven", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven" }, "book": { "title": "Ringworld", "slug": "ringworld", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/ringworld" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 177, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Larry_Niven#Ringworld_(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:28" }, { "id": "cd0fcf38-202f-48d3-8f1d-e453e8c281e6", "slug": "the-deftmenes-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/the-carpet-people/the-deftmenes-are", "text": "The Deftmenes are mad and the Dumii are sane, thought Snibril, and that's just the same as being mad except that it's quieter. If only you could mix them together, you'd end up with normal people.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "The Carpet People", "slug": "the-carpet-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/the-carpet-people" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett#The_Carpet_People_(1971%3B_1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:26" }, { "id": "bd7150cf-9d99-4f9b-807d-a44e308c9cd8", "slug": "genes-arent-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun/genes-arent-everything", "text": "Genes aren’t everything. Environment counts too, and environment can bend into actual psychosis where genes indicate only a potentiality for a particular psychosis.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "The Naked Sun", "slug": "the-naked-sun", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 373, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "madness", "slug": "madness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#The_Naked_Sun_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:19" } ] }