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, 1924Subject: 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
