#insanity

To be mad is to feel with excruciating intensity the sadness and joy of a time which has not arrived or has already been. And to protect their delicate vision of that other time, madmen will justify their condition with touching loyalty, and surround it with a thousand distractive schemes. These schemes, in turn, drive them deeper and deeper into the darkness and light (which is their mortification and their reward), and confront them with a choice. They may either slacken and fall back, accepting the relief of a rational view and the approval of others, or they may push on, and, by falling, arise. When and if by their unforgivable stubbornness they finally burst through to worlds upon worlds of motionless light, they are no longer called afflicted or insane. They are called saints. ↗

— Mark Helprin

#loyalty

Her purse was a weight, ballast; it tethered her to the earth as her mind floated away. ↗

— Anne Lamott

#insanity #parents #tragedy #faith

You learned to accept, or you ended up in a small room writing letters home with Crayolas. ↗

— Stephen King

#insanity #pets

I did learn something about insanity while I was down there. People go crazy, not because they are crazy, but because it's the best available option at the time. ↗

— Gabrielle Zevin

#the-best-option

Are you crazy? It's a common phrase, I know. But it means something particular to me: the tunnels, the security screens, the plastic forks, the shimmering, ever-shifting borderline that like all boundaries beckons and asks to be crossed. I do not want to cross it again. ↗

— Susanna Kaysen

#girl-interrupted #insanity #mental-illness #mental-illness

After my first few tastes I was pretty much hooked. I'd have dry spells, months without any or only piddling amounts of grace, but I never forgot about it or stopped wanting it. ↗

— Mark Vonnegut

#insane #insanity #mental-illness #mental-illness

I was fantasising about my own death, I started thinking what my funeral would be like and what music would be played, I was at that level of insanity. ↗

— Billy Corgan

#death #funeral #i #insanity #level

I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time. There's an insanity that goes with writing - a mad scientist thing that you have to go through - and sacrificing a kid's upbringing to do that is not an option. ↗

— Eddie Vedder

#being #dad #go #goes #great

I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me. ↗

— Hunter S. Thompson

#everyone #i #insanity #me #recommend

Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops. ↗

— Cary Grant

#insanity #practically #runs