Quotes about madness

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.

"Was she a bit mad?"

"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."

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...

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")

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?

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.

One form of insanity bears the name curiosity.

What I found was worse than diversity—it was insanity.

What does one do when a madman suggests an appealing course of action? One worries—but probably goes along with it.

“We won’t necessarily become extinct. Disarmament is being negotiated. Not all of us are insane.”

“But most of you are. Enough of you are—it only requires a few insane ones, in the right places.

As a scientist, I know this is madness. But I also know this is an act of faith.

“Quelius—you’re nuts—did you know that?”

“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.”