WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-09), “Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels,” Polemic, No. 5

Dave — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:37:03 +0000

The views that a writer holds must be compatible with sanity, in the medical sense, and with the power of continuous thought: beyond that what we ask of him is talent, which is probably another name for conviction.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-09), “Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels,” Polemic, No. 5
(Source)

Greenburg, Dan -- In Bill Hayward, Cat People (1978)

Dave — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:53:32 +0000

There is, incidentally, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person.

Dan Greenburg (1936-2023) American writer, humorist, journalist
In Bill Hayward, Cat People (1978)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- “The Decay of Meditation,” New York American (1931-11-04)

Dave — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 18:11:34 +0000

If we spent half an hour every day in silent immobility, I am convinced that we should conduct all our affairs, personal, national, and international, far more sanely than we do at present.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“The Decay of Meditation,” New York American (1931-11-04)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- “Some People”

Dave — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 14:16:59 +0000

some people never go crazy.
what truly horrible lives
they must lead.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“Some People”
(Source)

Feiffer, Jules -- Interview by Roy Newquist, Counterpoint (1964)

Dave — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:00:46 +0000

Be warned against all “good” advice because “good” advice is necessarily “safe” advice, and though it will undoubtedly follow a sane pattern, it will very likely lead one into total sterility — one of the crushing problems of our time.

Jules Feiffer (b. 1929) American cartoonist, authork, satirist
Interview by Roy Newquist, Counterpoint (1964)
(Source)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 2, The Light Fantastic (1986)

Dave — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 15:53:55 +0000

“Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out,” said the shopkeeper. “That’s what I’ve always thought. No one goes mad quicker than a totally sane person.”

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 2, The Light Fantastic (1986)
(Source)

Apuleius -- Apologia; or, A Discourse on Magic [Apologia; seu, Pro Se de Magia], ch. 80 [tr. Bohn’s (1853)]

Dave — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 20:07:06 +0000

But he who knows what insanity is, is sane; whereas insanity can no more be sensible of its own existence, than blindness can see itself.

[Sanus est, qui scit quid sit insania, quippe insania scire se non potest, non magis quam caecitas se videre.]

Apuleius (AD c. 124 - c. 170) Numidian Roman writer, philosopher, rhetorician [Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis]
Apologia; or, A Discourse on Magic [Apologia; seu, Pro Se de Magia], ch. 80 [tr. Bohn’s (1853)]
(Source)

Alt. trans.: "He who knows what madness is, is ipso facto sane. For madness cannot know itself any more than blindness can see itself." [tr. Butler (1909)]

Faulkner, William -- As I Lay Dying (1930)

Dave — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 21:39:13 +0000

But I aint so sho that ere a man has the right to say what is crazy and what aint. It’s like there was a fellow in every man that’s done a-past the sanity or the insanity, that watches the sane and insane doings of that man with the same horror and the same astonishment.

William Faulkner (1897-1962) American novelist
As I Lay Dying (1930)
(Source)

Faulkner, William -- As I Lay Dying (1930)

Dave — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 17:30:53 +0000

Sometimes I aint so sho who’s got ere a right to say when a man is crazy and when he aint. Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It’s like it aint so much what a fellow does, but it’s the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it. … That’s how I reckon a man is crazy. That’s how he cant see eye to eye with other folks. And I reckon they aint nothin else to do with him but what the most folks says is right.

William Faulkner (1897-1962) American novelist
As I Lay Dying (1930)

Schlesinger, Arthur -- Interview with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN (10 May 1998)

Dave — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 21:04:42 +0000

Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
Interview with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN (10 May 1998)

Brin, David -- The Postman, ch. 14 (1985)

Dave — Sat, 22 Oct 2016 04:03:00 +0000

It’s said that “power corrupts,” but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.

David Brin (b. 1950) American scientist and author
The Postman, ch. 14 (1985)

Often paraphrased: "It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." See Frank Herbert.

King, Stephen -- Pet Sematary (1983)

Dave — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 23:54:56 +0000

It’s probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horror which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls — as little as one may like to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, one coincidental evil begets other, often more deliberate evils, until finally blackness seems to cover everything.

And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity. That such events have their own Rube Goldberg absurdity goes almost without saying. At some point, it all starts to become rather funny. That may be the point at which sanity begins either to save itself or to buckle and break down; that point at which one’s sense of humor begins to reassert itself.

Stephen King (b. 1947) American author
Pet Sematary (1983)

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)

Dave — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 15:37:09 +0000

Crazy — a nonscientific term meaning that the person to whom one applies that label has a world picture differing from the accepted one.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)

Camus, Albert -- Notebooks: 1942-1951, Notebook 4, Jan 1942 – Sep 1945 [tr. O’Brien/Thody (1963)

Dave — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 12:45:04 +0000

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
Notebooks: 1942-1951, Notebook 4, Jan 1942 – Sep 1945 [tr. O’Brien/Thody (1963)
(Source)

Cited as "B.B."

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-12), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:52:22 +0000

A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-12), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 2 (1858).

Twain, Mark -- Christian Science, Book 1, ch. 5 (1907)

Dave — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 21:39:36 +0000

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now.

Those of us who are not in the asylum, and not demonstrably due there, are nevertheless, no doubt, insane in one or two particulars. I think we must admit this; but I think that we are otherwise healthy-minded. I think that when we all see one thing alike, it is evidence that, as regards that one thing, our minds are perfectly sound. Now there are really several things which we do all see alike; things which we all accept, and about which we do not dispute. For instance, we who are outside of the asylum all agree that water seeks its level; that the sun gives light and heat; that fire consumes; that fog is damp; that six times six are thirty-six, that two from ten leaves eight; that eight and seven are fifteen. These are, perhaps, the only things we are agreed about; but, although they are so few, they are of inestimable value, because they make an infallible standard of sanity. Whosoever accepts them him we know to be substantially sane; sufficiently sane; in the working essentials, sane. Whoever disputes a single one of them him we know to be wholly insane, and qualified for the asylum.

Very well, the man who disputes none of them we concede to be entitled to go at large. But that is concession enough. We cannot go any further than that; for we know that in all matters of mere opinion that same man is insane — just as insane as we are; just as insane as Shakespeare was. We know exactly where to put our finger upon his insanity: it is where his opinion differs from ours.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Christian Science, Book 1, ch. 5 (1907)
(Source)

Moffat, Steven -- Sherlock, 01×01 “A Study in Pink” (2010-07-25)

Dave — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:07:56 +0000

HOLMES: I’m not a psychopath, Anderson, I’m a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.

Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Sherlock, 01×01 “A Study in Pink” (2010-07-25)
(Source)

(Source (Video))

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 386 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Dave — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:51:02 +0000

The madman thinks the rest of the world crazy.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 386 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Lynn, Jonathan -- Yes, Prime Minister, 01×07 “The Bishop’s Gambit” (BBC2 Television) (1986-02-20) [with Antony Jay]

Dave — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:53:19 +0000

BERNARD: It’s one of those irregular verbs, isn’t it: I have an independent mind, you are eccentric, he is round the twist.

Jonathan Lynn (b. 1943) English actor, comedy writer, director
Yes, Prime Minister, 01×07 “The Bishop’s Gambit” (BBC2 Television) (1986-02-20) [with Antony Jay]

~Other -- J. D. Griffin

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Every time I try to define a perfectly stable person, I am appalled by the dullness of that person.

(Other Authors and Sources)
J. D. Griffin

Shakespeare, William -- Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 223 (2.2.223) (c. 1600)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

POLONIUS: Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 223 (2.2.223) (c. 1600)
(Source)

Edlund, Ben -- The Tick (cartoon), 02×09 “Ants in the Pants!” (1995-11-18) [w. Ralph Soll]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

THE TICK: And isn’t sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean, all of you get is one trick, rational thinking. But when you’re good and crazy, oohoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, the sky’s the limit!

Ben Edlund (b. 1968) American cartoonist, writer, producer
The Tick (cartoon), 02×09 “Ants in the Pants!” (1995-11-18) [w. Ralph Soll]
(Source)

Twain, Mark -- “What Is Man?” (1906)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Each nation knowing it has the only true religion and the only sane system of government, each despising all the others, each an ass and not suspecting it.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“What Is Man?” (1906)

Full text.