“Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech, and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that they themselves are sane.”
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
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Ambrose Bierce204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914Related quotes
“The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
Source: Epigrams, p. 358
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) British economist
On the Conservative Party; Skidelsky (1992:231) quoting Collected Writings Volume IX page 296-297
“I like you because you were mad. And you're pretty. And pretty sane for a mad person.”
Maureen Johnson book 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Source: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Robert Hughes (1938–2012) Australian critic, historian, writer
"Vincent van Gogh, Part I" (1984)
Nothing If Not Critical (1991)
“In a mad world, only the mad are sane!”
Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) Japanese film maker
Ran (1985)
Variant: In a mad world, only the mad are sane.
Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Life, p. 9
Collected Poems (1993)
Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
“To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher
“In the country of the mad, the sane man is crazy.”
Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer
The Overman Culture (1971)