Sunday, January 24, 2010

Madness

Subject:  Madness         
Quote:  “[W]hat is madness?  I can assure you that the more we study the Subject, the more difficult we find it to pronounce.  We all practice a certain amount of self-deception, and when we carry it so far as to believe we are the Czar of Russia, we are shut up or restrained.  But there is a long road before we reach that point.  At what particular spot on it shall we erect a post and say, ‘On this side sanity, on the other madness’?  It can’t be done, you know.  And I will tell you this—if the man suffering from a delusion happened to hold his tongue about it, in all probability we should never be able to distinguish him from a normal individual.  The extraordinary sanity of the insane is an interesting Subject.”
Character:  Sir Alington
Chapter/Story:  “The Red Signal”
Book Title/Copyright:  Witness for the Prosecution, 1924


Subject:  Going Mad 
Quote:  “Hugh broke off our engagement because he thinks he is going mad.  He thinks people who are mad should not marry…. What is being mad, after all?  Everyone is a little mad…. It’s only when you begin thinking you’re a poached egg or something that they have to shut you up.”
Character:  Diana Maberly
Chapter/Story:  “The Cretan Bull”
Book Title/Copyright:  The Labors of Hercules, 1947