Marcus Aurelius
Philosopher, Emperor
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Insanity quotes
Insanity
497 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Isaac Newton
Mathematician, Physicist, Astronomer
"I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Poet, Playwright, Novelist
"We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe."
Jimmy Buffett
Musician, Author
"Therapy is extremely expensive. Popping bubble wrap is radically cheap."
Morgan Freeman
Actor, Narrator
"Insanity is being shit on, beat down, coasting through life in a miserable existence when you have a caged lion locked inside and a key to release it."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside insanity — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Insanity quotes (page 1 of 25)
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"You will certainly grant me that neither antiquity nor whatever nation has devised a more repulsive and blasphemous absurdity than that of eating your God. This is the most disgusting dogma of Christian religion, the greatest insult to the Highest Being, the climax of madness and insanity."
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"I'm a nut, but not just a nut."
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"Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage."
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"The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane."
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"The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact."
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"The most mentally deranged people are certainly those who see in others indications of insanity they do not notice in themselves."
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"Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops."
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"Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?"
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"I'm crazy for trying, crazy for crying, and I'm crazy for loving you."
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"No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness."
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"We have an insanity plea that would have saved Cain."
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"Reality is the #1 cause of insanity among those who are in contact with it"
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"Fantasy is not antirational, but pararational; not realistic but surrealistic, a heightening of reality. In Freud's terminology, it employs primary not secondary process thinking. It employs archetypes which, as Jung warned us, are dangerous things. Fantasy is nearer to poetry, to mysticism, and to insanity than naturalistic fiction is. It is a wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe."
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"A veil of insanity everywhere: Oh why I was born in this age? It is a terrible age."
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"All sin is a form of insanity. Satan is the most insane being of all because he still believes he can defeat God"
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"Love stories are only fit for the solace of people in the insanity of puberty. No healthy adult human being can really care whether so-and-so does or does not succeed in satisfying his physiological uneasiness by the aid of some particular person or not."
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"There is no element of genius without some form of madness."
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"Insanity is relative. Who sets the norm?"
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"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked."
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"In the quest to be a man, you start to learn you need your family. If it wasn't for them, I'd be way closer to insanity."
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