“If I am Sophocles, I am not mad; and if I am mad, I am not Sophocles.”
Sophocles (-496–-406 BC) ancient Greek tragedian
Vit. Anon, page 64 (Plumptre's Trans.).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
“If I am Sophocles, I am not mad; and if I am mad, I am not Sophocles.”
Sophocles (-496–-406 BC) ancient Greek tragedian
Vit. Anon, page 64 (Plumptre's Trans.).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet
Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Bhakti
“People like eccentrics and they will therefore leave me alone, saying that I am a "mad clown."”
Vaslav Nijinsky (1889–1950) Russian ballet dancer and choreographer
As quoted in Vaslav Nijinsky : A Leap into Madness by Peter F. Ostwald, Ch. 8: Playing the Role of a Madman, p. 176
Unsourced variant: I know everyone will say "Nijinsky has gone mad," but I don’t care because I have already played the mad man at home. That is what everyone will think, but they won’t put me in an insane asylum because I dance very well and give money to anyone who asks. People like eccentrics, so they will leave me alone and say I’m a mad clown. I like the mentally ill because I know how to talk to them. When my brother was in an insane asylum, I loved him and he could feel me. His friends liked me. I was eighteen then. I understood the life of a mentally ill person.