“Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it by threats, persuasion, or bribes.”

— Joseph Conrad , book The Secret Agent

Source: The Secret Agent

Last update May 23, 2023. History

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Joseph Conrad 127

Polish-British writer 1857–1924

Claud Cockburn (1904–1981) Irish journalist

Page 62
A Discord of Trumpets (1956)

“All men are mad in some way or another, and inasmuch as you deal discreetly with your madmen, so deal with God's madmen too, the rest of the world.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

“To compel man to desert the standard of Reason, the church does not entirely rely on the threat of eternal pain to be endured in another world, but holds out the reward of everlasting joy. To those who believe, it promises the endless ecstasies of heaven. If it cannot frighten, it will bribe”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The Truth (1896)

“Threats alone are the weapons of the threatened man.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

“But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad.”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

“It is possible to be truly mad and to still exist upon scraps of life.”

Charles Bukowski book Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Source: Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

“Torture was necessary to maintain slavery. It was integral to slavery. You cannot have slavery without some torture or the threat of torture; and you cannot have torture without slavery.”

Andrew Sullivan (1963) Journalist, writer, blogger

"Slavery and Torture" http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/02/slavery_and_tor.html, The Daily Dish (23 February 2007)
Context: Torture was necessary to maintain slavery. It was integral to slavery. You cannot have slavery without some torture or the threat of torture; and you cannot have torture without slavery. You cannot imprison a free man for ever unless you have broken him; and you can only forcibly break a man's soul by torturing it out of him. Slavery dehumanizes; torture dehumanizes in exactly the same way. The torture of human beings who have no freedom and no recourse to the courts is slavery.

“This book has neither the virtue of irony nor deserves the sympathy reserved for the truly mad.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

From the third book, "The Book of the Idiot"
The Pillow Book

“Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or example. But inevitably they fail, either because men are not afraid to die for a life worth living, or because the terrorists themselves came to realize that free men cannot be frightened by threats, and that aggression would meet its own response.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1961, UN speech
Context: Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or example. But inevitably they fail, either because men are not afraid to die for a life worth living, or because the terrorists themselves came to realize that free men cannot be frightened by threats, and that aggression would meet its own response. And it is in the light of that history that every nation today should know, be he friend or foe, that the United States has both the will and the weapons to join free men in standing up to their responsibilities.

“Creation which cannot express itself becomes madness.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

October 18, 1936 Fire
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)

“Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it by threats, persuasion, or bribes.”

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Joseph Conrad 127

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