Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Misattributed
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Misattributed
John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic
Act I
Buchanan Dying (1974)
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (1372–1449) Egyptian scholar
Diwan Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, quoted in Selections from the Fath al-Bari, p.4
Poetry
“I would not mind you in my head, if you were not so clearly mad.”
Robert Jordan The Path of Daggers
Lews Therin, to Rand
The Path of Daggers (20 October 1998)
Norman Solomon (1951) American journalist, media critic, antiwar activist
Hostile Propaganda: Contempt for diplomacy with Russia is now extreme (16 July 2018)
Ounsi el-Hajj (1937–2014) Lebanese poet, journalist, and translator
An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, p. 75
Poetry, Rendezvous
William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist
He was running his hand into his breeches pocket, apparently to take out his knife, but I...drew up my right leg, armed with a new and sharp-edged gallashe over my boot, dealt Mr. Ellice's ripping Savage so delightful a blow, just between his two eyes, that he fell back upon his followers.
‘History of the Coventry Election’, Political Register (25 March 1820), pp. 102–3
1820s
Waleed Al-Husseini book The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam
The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam
Wendell Berry (1934) author
"A Statement Against the War in Vietnam" an address at the University of Kentucky (10 February 1968) http://books.google.com/books?id=-hHNuLumg8wC&pg=PA68 <br class="br">The Long-Legged House (1969)
“To be mad is to keep repeating something that has already been seen as useless, as worthless.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Misattributed
Elif Shafak (1971) Turkish writer
On focusing on her readership in “Elif Shafak: ‘I thought the British were calm about politics. Not any longer’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/16/elif-shalak-i-thought-the-british-were-calm-about-politics-booker-prize-shortlist in The Guardian (2019 Sep 16)
Michael Burleigh (1955) American historian and writer
Source: The Third Reich: A New History (2000), p. 94
Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Trilogy, pt.1
Poetry, Miscellaneous poems
“People get really mad when you don't let them use you.”
Christian Canlubo (2002) Filipino Internet Entrepreneur
Source: https://twitter.com/canlubochris/status/1239121399731458048 | Christian Canlubo personal Twitter account
Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012 — Present), Season 3 (2014)
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer
"Of Love" as translated in The Infinite in Giordano Bruno : With a Translation of His Dialogue, Concerning the Cause, Principle, and One (1978) by Sidney Thomas Greenburg, p. 89
Variant translation:
<p>Cause, Principle and One, the Sempiterne,
On whom all being, motion, life, depend.
From whom, in length, breadth, depth, their paths extend
As far as heaven, earth, hell their faces turn :
With sense, with mind, with reason, I discern
That not, rule, reckoning, may not comprehend
That power and bulk and multitude which tend
Beyond all lower, middle, and superne.</p><p> Blind error, ruthless time, ungentle doom,
Deaf envy, villain madness, zeal unwise,
Hard heart, unholy craft, bold deeds begun,
Shall never fill for one the air with gloom,
Or ever thrust a veil before these eyes,
Or ever hide from me my glorious sun.</p>
As quoted in "Giordano Bruno" by Thomas Davidson, The Index Vol. VI. No. 36 (4 March 1886), p. 429
Cause, Principle, and Unity (1584)
“I admire only two types of people: the potentially mad and the potential suicide.”
Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist
On the Heights of Despair (1934)
Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator
Source: Essays and Addresses, Vol. III- Evolution and Occultism (1913)
“Madness, as you know, is like gravity, all it takes is a little push.”
movie The Dark Knight
Character Joker
“An excellent relationship is pure madness to live in two.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) Un'ottima relazione è pura follia da vivere in due.
Source: prevale.net
“Life is the code of madness, endless combinations of risky actions.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) La vita è il codice della follia, infinite combinazioni di rischiose azioni.
Source: prevale.net
Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Journal Articles
“Madness is the genius’ substitute for stupidity.”
Ron English (1959) American artist
Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)
Honoré de Balzac book Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
et Misères des courtisanes (The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans) (1837-1847), part IV. La dernière Incarnation de Vautrin (The Last Incarnation of Vautrin) https://books.google.ca/books?id=ajtOAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Splendeurs+et+Mis%C3%A8res+des+Coutisanes+Sc%C3%A8nes+de+la+Vie+parisienne&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiq69XJuJTvAhXrMlkFHcxvDVgQ6AEwCHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&f=falseSplendeurs, "Le Préau de la Conciergerie" ("The Courtyard of the Conciergerie") (chapter title). <br class="br">Original: (fr) Le crime et la folie ont quelque similitude. Voir les prisonniers de la Conciergerie au préau, ou voir des fous dans le jardin d'une maison de santé, c'est une même chose. Les uns et les autres se promènent en s'évitant, se jettent des regards au moins siguliers, atroces, selon leurs pensées du moment, jamais gais ni sérieux ; car ils se connaissent ou ils se craignent. L'attente d'une condamnation, les remords, les anxiétés donnent aux promeneurs du préau l'air inquiet et hagard des fous. Les criminels consommés ont seuls une assurance qui ressemble à la tranquillité d'une vie honnête, à la sincérité d'une conscience pure.
“To be a poet is to dive into the madness of poetry and penetrate deeply into the realm of words…”
Valter Bitencourt Júnior (1994) Brazilian poet and writer
“The stink of madness is unsubtle here. Let us be going.”
Tanith Lee Tales from the Flat Earth
Prologue, “The Tower of Baybhelu”(p. 36)
Tales from the Flat Earth, Delusion's Master (1981)
“Dare to call it madness only if you felt part of it.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) Abbiate il coraggio di chiamarla follia solo se vi sentiste parte di essa.
Source: prevale.net
“You are the occurrence of my life, you know how to be my most overwhelming madness.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) Tu, sei l'occorrenza della mia vita, sai essere la mia più travolgente follia.
Source: prevale.net
Dee Bradley Baker (1962) American voice actor
Denver’s “Clone Wars,” “Phineas and Ferb” voice actor on working (from home) through a pandemic https://theknow.denverpost.com/2020/08/21/dee-bradley-baker-interview/243747/ (August 21, 2020)
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Aldous Huxley, The Devils of London Chatto & Windus, London, (1951) p. 274
Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet
Dove sarà mai la luce promessa? C’è forse un paradiso tra le nuvole, riposo nel vento, ristoro nei fondali marini? Dove finisce il buio, l’insonnia, la pazzia, il pianto, la malattia, la morte? Dove si nasconde Dio?
FROM: Andrew Mangham, The Poetry of Menotti Lerro, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011, pp. 71-72. ISBN 978-1443828444
Megan Thee Stallion (1995) American rapper and songwriter
On preferring collaboration rather than rivalry in “'When a woman raps, she spitting!' Megan Thee Stallion, the hot girl taking over hip-hop” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/08/megan-thee-stallion-hot-girl-taking-over-hip-hop-interview in The Guardian (2020 May 8)
Lois McMaster Bujold book The Hallowed Hunt
Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Hallowed Hunt (2005), Chapter 15 (pp. 263-264)
“The jealous is possessed by a "fine mad devil" and a dull spirit at once.”
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss poet
No. 345
In William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, sc. 1, Falstaff says that Mistress Ford's husband has "the finest mad devil of jealousy in him".
Aphorisms on Man (1788)
“Mind working is man, mind working fast is mad, mind slowed down is Mast and mind stopped is God.”
Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic
General sources
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) Siate sempre coerenti conservando in voi quella scintilla di sana follia, che rende vitale la vostra anima.
Source: prevale.net
John Derbyshire (1945) writer
Source: Succouring the Poor https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/succouring-poor-john-derbyshire/, National Review, February 6, 2012.
Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer
Michel Henry, Barbarism, Continuum, 2012, p. 52
Books on Culture and Barbarism, Barbarism (1987)
Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter
"Ooh, Baby" (song) <br class="br">Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Ooh, Baby" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPsVmA742FE (song on YouTube) <br class="br">Song lyrics
“Madness also makes folks uneasy; they fear contagion.”
Jane Yolen (1939) American speculative fiction and children's writer
Source: Short fiction, Dragonfield and Other Stories (1985), The Tree’s Wife (p. 78)
Ricardo Ezzati (1942) archbishop and cardinal
Source: Chile – Cardinal Ezzati: Reparation Eucharist https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/1167-chile-cardinal-ezzati-reparation-eucharist-at-gratitud-nacionain-this-l (13 June 2016)
“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?”
Tara Westover book Educated
Source: Educated (2018), Chapter 36, “Four Long Arms, Whirling” (p. 301)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars
Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 9, “The Spur of the Moment” (p. 450)
“Normality is a boring uniformity, madness a lively uniqueness.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: La normalità è una noiosa uniformità, la follia una vivace unicità.
Source: prevale.net
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from Arles, France, 3 Febr. 1889; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, (letter 576), p 25 <br class="br">1880s, 1889
“Madness is one of the main resources for accomplishing genious feats.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: La follia è una delle principali risorse per compiere geniali imprese.
Source: prevale.net