“
There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
”
”
Oscar Levant
“
The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success and failure.
”
”
Masashi Kishimoto
“
Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.
”
”
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
“
Genius has its limitations.
Insanity...not so much" -Bumper Sticker
”
”
Darynda Jones (First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1))
“
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success
”
”
Ian Fleming
“
I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.
”
”
William Blake
“
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.
”
”
Bruce Feirstein
“
There is a fine line between insanity and genius.
”
”
Dan Brown (The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3))
“
I quite agree with Dr. Nordau's assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr. Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots.
”
”
Oscar Wilde
“
Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.
”
”
Denis Diderot
“
Genius is a curse. That's how I look at it. Some think that the brilliant comprehend the universe in a way the rest of us can't. They see the world how it truly is—and that reality is so horrible the lose their minds. Clarity leads to insanity.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Caught)
“
One man's insanity is another man's genius; someday the world will recognize the genius in my insanity.
”
”
Joyce Carol Oates
“
Anyway, madness and genius. They're the disturbed pals of the human condition. The Bonnie and Clyde, the Thelma and Louise, the baking soda and vinegar. Insanity just walks alongside the brilliant like some creepy, insistent shadow.
”
”
Deb Caletti (Wild Roses)
“
There are many perks to living for twenty-one centuries, and foremost among them is bearing witness to the rare birth of genius. It invariably goes like this: Someone shrugs off the weight of his cultural traditions, ignores the baleful stares of authority, and does something his countrymen think to be completely batshit insane. Of those, Galileo was my personal favorite. Van Gogh comes in second, but he really was batshit insane.
”
”
Kevin Hearne (Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #1))
“
I've proved my point. I've demonstrated there's no difference between me and everyone else! All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once, am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else would you dress up as a flying rat? You had a bad day, and it drove you as crazy as everybody else... Only you won't admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there's some point to all this struggling! God you make me want to puke. I mean, what is it with you? What made you what you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob, maybe? Brother carved up by some mugger? Something like that, I bet. Something like that... Something like that happened to me, you know. I... I'm not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha! But my point is... My point is, I went crazy. When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot! I admit it! Why can't you? I mean, you're not unintelligent! You must see the reality of the situation. Do you know how many times we've come close to world war three over a flock of geese on a computer screen? Do you know what triggered the last world war? An argument over how many telegraph poles Germany owed its war debt creditors! Telegraph poles! Ha ha ha ha HA! It's all a joke! Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for... it's all a monstrous, demented gag! So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?
”
”
Alan Moore (Batman: The Killing Joke)
“
A lot of people say there's a fine line between genius and insanity. I don't think there's a fine line, I actually think there's a yawning gulf. You see some poor bugger scuffling up the road with balloons tied to his ears, he's not going home to invent a rocket, is he?
”
”
Bill Bailey
“
The only difference between genius and insanity is that genius has its limits.
”
”
Albert Einstein
“
In my business, one learns there is a fine line between insanity and genius. We would be wise to give this man a little respect.
”
”
Dan Brown (The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3))
“
Genius - the pursuit of madness.
”
”
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
“
Relying on craft and routine is a lot less sexy than being an artistic genius. But it is an excellent strategy for not going insane.” —Christoph Niemann
”
”
Austin Kleon (Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad)
“
Genius has its limitations. Insanity … not so much.
”
”
Darynda Jones (First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1))
“
Clarissa will be bereaved, deeply lonely, but she will not die. She will be too much in love with life, with London. Virginia imagines someone else, yes, someone strong of body but frail-minded; someone with a touch of genius, of poetry, ground under by the wheels of the world, by war and government, by doctors; a someone who is, technically speaking insane, because that person sees meaning everywhere, knows that trees are sentient beings and sparrows sing in Greek. Yes, someone like that. Clarissa, sane Clarissa -exultant, ordinary Clarissa - will go on, loving London, loving her life of ordinary pleasures, and someone else, a deranged poet, a visonary, will be the one to die.
”
”
Michael Cunningham (The Hours)
“
They are walking the line between genius and insanity.
”
”
Madeleine Roux (Asylum (Asylum #1))
“
And there's a thin line between genius and insanity, isn't there?
”
”
Jacqueline Winspear (Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs, #6))
“
You took a heater outside? / I look at the heater. "I am freezing." / He thinks I'm insane. He's not wrong. / "That is genius. I don't even think I would do that.
”
”
Alice Oseman (Solitaire)
“
Genius and insanity are fraternal twins.
”
”
Carl Henegan (Darkness Left Undone)
“
Genius is one of the many forms of insanity.
”
”
Cesare Lombroso
“
Something about Bekka and Haylee reminded her of Candace's line between ingenious and insane. Ingenuity inspired their dreams, and insanity gave them the courage to pursue them. It was something Melody wanted for herself.
”
”
Lisi Harrison (Monster High (Monster High, #1))
“
My girl was mad and I loved her. Upon a night, she read my poetry; and kissing me madly she cried, ‘You are a genius, my love!’ To which I replied, ‘My girl,’ whispering, ‘Every doctor in this land with a prescription pad is more of a genius than I.
”
”
Roman Payne
“
As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels looked like torment and insanity, I collected some proverbs
”
”
William Blake
“
Yes. They are the words that finally turned me into the hermit I have now become. It was quite sudden. I saw them, and I knew what I had to do."
The sign read:
"Hold stick near center of its length. Moisten pointed end in mouth. Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum. Use gentle in-out motion."
"It seemed to me," said Wonko the Sane, "that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a package of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.
”
”
Douglas Adams (So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4))
“
[G]enius is a true degenerative psychosis belonging to the group of moral insanity . . .
”
”
Cesare Lombroso (The Man of Genius)
“
There's a fine mascara line between genius and insanity
”
”
Josh Stern
“
how slim the line is between genius and insanity and between determination and stubbornness.
”
”
Richard Branson (Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way)
“
He's no idiot, in fact he's a genius... and that's as far from an idiot as you can get without reaching madness.
”
”
Mike Judge
“
The dividing line between genius and insanity is very thin and quite permeable—which is why so many geniuses descend into madness.
”
”
Nick Cutter (The Troop)
“
He challenged the world with his genius, and the world defeated him by ignoring the challenge and starving him. He stopped writing because he had failed and because he had no choice but to accept the world’s terms: there is no mystery here. This was not insanity, but common sense.
”
”
Raymond M. Weaver (The Shorter Novels of Herman Melville: Benito Cereno/Bartleby the Scrivener/The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles/Billy Budd, Foretopman)
“
He was a young man of savage & unexpected originality, a diseased genius & quite frankly, a mad genius. Imbeciles grow insane & in their insanity the imbecility remains stagnant or agitated; in the madness of a man of genius some genius often remains: the form & not the quality of intelligence has been affected; the fruit has been bruised in the fall, but has preserved all its perfume & all the savor of its pulp, hardly too ripe.
”
”
Remy de Gourmont (The Book of Masks)
“
Hotness and Genius have the same byproduct: Insanity
”
”
Josh Stern
“
I believe I have moments of pure genius...the rest of them are all insanity.
”
”
Viveca Benoir (To Murder Matt)
“
It's safe to say that Carroll's words weren't a stroke of luck, but of genius. Something in that book makes people relate. Wonderland must be real.
”
”
Cameron Jace (Insanity (Insanity, #1))
“
The only difference between genius and insanity is that genius has its limits.
”
”
Jeremy Robinson (NPC)
“
Insanity is the term used when one has digressed or progressed beyond the norm.
”
”
Jordan O'Donnell
“
During the Renaissance there was a renewed interest in the relationship between genius, melancholia, and madness. A stronger distinction was made between sane melancholies of high achievement and individuals whose insanity prevented them from using their ability. The eighteenth century witnessed a sharp change in attitude; balance and rational thought, rather than “inspiration” and emotional extremes, were seen as the primary components of genius.
”
”
Kay Redfield Jamison (Touched with Fire)
“
Marcus’s appearance the
day before had been discussed, dissected, analyzed, and—by Lady
Sarah Pleinsworth, Honoria’s cousin and one of her closest friends
—rendered into poetry.
“He came in the rain,” Sarah intoned. “The day had been plain.”
Honoria nearly spit out her tea.
“It was muddy, this lane—”
Cecily Royle smiled slyly over her teacup. “Have you
considered free verse?”
“—our heroine, in pain—”
“I was cold,” Honoria put in.
Iris Smythe-Smith, another of Honoria’s cousins, looked up with
her signature dry expression. “I am in pain,” she stated.
“Specifically, my ears.”
Honoria shot Iris a look that said clearly, Be polite. Iris just
shrugged.
“—her distress, she did feign—”
“Not true!” Honoria protested.
“You can’t interfere with genius,” Iris said sweetly.
“—her schemes, not in vain—”
“This poem is devolving rapidly,” Honoria stated.
“I am beginning to enjoy it,” said Cecily.
“—her existence, a bane . . .”
Honoria let out a snort. “Oh, come now!”
“I think she’s doing an admirable job,” Iris said, “given the
limitations of the rhyming structure.” She looked over at Sarah, who
had gone quite suddenly silent. Iris cocked her head to the side; so
did Honoria and Sarah.
Sarah’s lips were parted, and her left hand was still outstretched
with great drama, but she appeared to have run out of words.
“Cane?” Cecily suggested. “Main?”
“Insane?” offered Iris.
“Any moment now,” Honoria said tartly, “if I’m trapped here
much longer with you lot.
”
”
Julia Quinn (Just Like Heaven (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #1))
“
Just think of how his book has inspired, affected, and shaped the minds of children for almost one hundred and fifty years. It's safe to say that Carroll's words weren't a stroke of luck, but of genius. Something in that book makes people relate. Wonderland must be real.
”
”
Cameron Jace (Insanity (Insanity, #1))
“
Eric dubbed his pranks “the missions.” As they got under way, he ruminated about misfit geniuses in American society. He didn’t like what he saw. Eric was a voracious reader, and he had just gobbled up John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, which includes a fable about the idiot savant Tularecito. The young boy had extraordinary gifts that allowed him to see a world his peers couldn’t even imagine—exactly how Eric was coming to view himself, though without Tularecito’s mental shortcomings. Tularecito’s peers failed to see his gifts and treated him badly. Tularecito struck back violently, killing one of his antagonists. He was imprisoned for life in an insane asylum. Eric did not approve. “Tularecito did not deserve to be put away,” he wrote in a book report. “He just needed to be taught to control his anger. Society needs to treat extremely talented people like Tularecito much better.” All they needed was more time, Eric argued—gifted misfits could be taught what was right and wrong, what was acceptable to society. “Love and care is the only way,” he said.
”
”
Dave Cullen (Columbine)
“
Most people are just a waste of sanity.
”
”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“
There's a fine line between genius and insanity--and I enjoy trampling all over it.
”
”
Nick Angelis (Nonsense)
“
Genius has its limitations. Insanity - not so
much.
”
”
-aPriL does feral sometimes (goodreads member)
“
People say to me ‘This guy is crazy!’ and I agree with them.
”
”
Steven Magee
“
Genius has its limitations.
Insanity … not so much.
”
”
Darynda Jones (First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1))
“
To see the world in a way that is different than the way everyone else sees it is pure genius. It is also insanity."
Mark Hewitt
”
”
Mark Hewitt (Hunted: The Zodiac Murders (The Zodiac Serial Killer, #1))
“
there is a very fine dividing line between genius and insanity.
”
”
Leopoldo Gout (Genius: The Game)
“
There's a fine line between stuff, and if you stare at it long enough it'll drive you insane or to genius
”
”
Josh Stern (And That’s Why I’m Single)
“
I learned that creative genius and insanity can be quite close to each other, that the same chemistry that creates insights can cause distortions, and that being stuck in one’s own head is terribly dangerous.
”
”
Ray Dalio (Principles: Life and Work)
“
Daca schizofrenia este universala, atunci marele artist este cu adevarat cel care sparge zidul schizofrenic, ajungand in patria necunoscuta, acolo unde el nu mai apartine niciunei epoci, niciunui mediu, niciunei scoli.
”
”
Gilles Deleuze (Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia)
“
It is possible that these great geniuses are only madmen, and that one must be mad oneself to have boundless faith in them and a boundless admiration for them. If this is true, I should prefer my insanity to the sanity of the others.
”
”
Vincent van Gogh (Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated) (Masters of Art Book 3))
“
It might come a time to not follow your passion, so to speak, although it must be prioritized. It may be the case that your passion will serve as the medic, your peace of mind, alongside a higher calling, with your higher calling being the point man.
”
”
Criss Jami (Healology)
“
I was an unusual young man then, around eighteen years old - precocious in a hundred ways but very far behind and helpless in a hundred other ways. When I compared myself to other people my age, as I would do every now and then, I sometimes felt proud and conceited but just as often demoralized and depressed. There were many times I saw myself as a genius, many times as half insane. I was never able to share and join in the others' pleasures, and I was eaten up with worries and self-hatred about how hopelessly isolated I was from them, how cut off from life.
”
”
Hermann Hesse (Demian)
“
Herr Hitler is the very person he wants to eradicate. He might have started out with good intentions, but he is mentally unbalanced and now almost insane.” “Then how come he is loved by the whole nation?” Harold interjected. “His first programs of building the Autobahn, of installing the Reichsarbeitsdienst (national labor service) were almost strokes of genius. This endeared him with our people suffering from unemployment. Then he promised things which he is unable to deliver. His hypnotic power as an orator causes the people to cheer. They don’t love him. They are simply mesmerized by a charlatan.
”
”
Horst Christian (Children to a Degree: Growing Up Under the Third Reich: Book 1)
“
Monseigneur Bienvenu was no genius. He would have feared those sublime peaks from which some, even the very great among them such as Swedenborg and Pascal, have slipped into insanity. Certainly, these powerful conceits have their moral usefulness and by these arduous paths one may approach ideal perfection. But he took the shorter path: the Gospel.
”
”
Victor Hugo (Les Misérables)
“
And do you know the story about Haydn’s head? They cut it away from the still-warm cadaver so some insane scientist could take apart the brain and pinpoint the location of musical genius. And the Einstein Story? He’d carefully written his will with instructions to cremate him. They followed his orders, but his disciple, ever loyal and devoted, refused to live without the master’s gaze on him. Before the cremation, he took the eyes of the cadaver and put them in a bottle of alcohol to keep them watching him until the moment he should die himself. That’s why I said that the crematory fire is the only way our bodies can escape them. It’s the only absolute death. And I don’t want any other. Jean-Marc, I want an absolute death.
”
”
Milan Kundera (Identity)
“
I will remark, here, that James W. Paige, the little bright-eyed, alert, smartly dressed inventor of the machine, is a most extraordinary compound of business thrift and commercial insanity; of cold calculation and jejune sentimentality; of veracity and falsehood; of fidelity and treachery; of nobility and baseness; of pluck and cowardice; of wasteful liberality and pitiful stinginess; of solid sense and weltering moonshine; of towering genius and trivial ambitions; of merciful bowels and a petrified heart; of colossal vanity and— But there the opposites stop. His vanity stands alone, sky-piercing, as sharp of outline as an Egyptian monolith. It is the only unpleasant feature in him that is not modified, softened, compensated by some converse characteristic.
”
”
Mark Twain (Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1)
“
I know if I died tonight, I would die a happy man at peace with myself knowing Gloria’s story would finally be told—a mysterious and astonishing story that defies the timeworn precepts of modern psychology and psychiatry—where insanity, genius, the metaphysical, and the mystery of life come together to beguile and confound our contemporary understanding of the mind and its limitless powers to heal.
Dr. Adam Jaxon
”
”
Linden Morningstar (Gloria Rising)
“
If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal—that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself.
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
“
Naturally, the significant results that legitimize a mathematical theory take time to derive, and then even more time to be fully accepted, and of course throughout this time the Insanity-v.-Genius question remains undecided, probably even for the mathematician himself, so that he's developing his theory and cooking his proofs under conditions of enormous personal stress and doubt, and sometimes isn't even vindicated in his own lifetime, etc.
”
”
David Foster Wallace (Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity)
“
Düşüncesi neyse insan odur; düşünce sayısı insan sayısından çok daha az olduğu için de, aynı düşünceyi paylaşan insanlar benzerdir. Düşüncenin maddi bir yanı olmadığından, bir düşüncenin adamı etrafında sadece maddi olarak toplanmış insanlar, bu düşünceyi hiçbir şekilde değiştirmezler." (Guermantes Tarafı, s.92)
"Düşüncenin, insanların çıkarlarına bir katkısı olamayacağı ve onların avantajlarından da yararlanamayacağı için, aynı düşünceyi paylaşan insanlar, çıkardan etkilenmezler." (a.g.e. s.93)
”
”
Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time)
“
[January 1944] As to this country, I have been lecturing now for three years to the troops and their attitude is the same. They don’t believe in concentration camps, they don’t believe in the starved children of Greece, in the shot hostages of France, in the mass-graves of Poland; they have never heard of Lidice, Treblinka or Belzec; you can convince them for an hour, then they shake themselves, their mental self-defence begins to work and in a week the shrug of incredulity has returned like a reflex temporarily weakened by a shock.
Clearly all this is becoming a mania with me and my like. Clearly we must suffer from some morbid obsession, whereas the others are healthy and normal. But the characteristic symptom of maniacs is that they lose contact with reality and live in a phantasy world. So perhaps it is the other way around: perhaps it is we, the screamers, who react in a sound and healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotic, who totter about in a screamed phantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts! Were it not so, this war would have been avoided, and those murdered within sight of your daydreaming eyes would still be alive!
”
”
Arthur Koestler
“
MAGICAL obsession is that state when the mind is illuminated by sub-conscious activity evoked voluntarily by formula at our own time, etc., for inspiration. It is the condition of Genius. Other obsession is the "blind leading the blind," caused by quietism, known as mediumism, an opening out of the Ego to (what is called) any external influence, elementals, or disembodied energy. A transmutated consciousness that is a resistance to "true" sub-conscious activity, it being a voluntary insanity, a somnambulation of the Ego with "no form" or control to guide it: hence its emanations are stupid in suggestion, or memories of childhood.
”
”
Austin Osman Spare (The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy)
“
When Love becomes a command, Hatred can become a pleasure.
* * *
if you don’t gamble, you’ll never win
* * *
Beautiful thoughts, and beautiful women never last
* * *
you can cage a tiger but you’re never sure he’s broken. Men are easier
* * *
if you want to know where God is, ask a drunk.
* * *
there aren’t any angels in the foxholes
* * *
no pain means the end of feeling; each of our joys is a bargain with the devil.
* * *
the difference between Art and Life is that Art is more bearable
* * *
I’d rather hear about a live American bum than a dead Greek God.
* * *
there is nothing as boring as the truth
* * *
The well balanced individual is insane
* * *
Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot
* * *
a brave man lacks imagination. Cowardice is usually caused by lack of proper diet.
* * *
sexual intercourse is kicking death in the ass while singing
* * *
when men rule governments, men won’t need governments; until then we are screwed
* * *
an intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way.
* * *
everytime I go to a funeral I feel as if I had eaten puffed wheat germ
* * *
dripping faucets, farts of passion, flat tires — are all sadder than death.
* * *
if you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Notes of a Dirty Old Man)
“
If we believe the Greek poet, "it is sometimes pleasant to be mad" again, Plato always knocked in vain at the door of poetry when he was sober; or, if we trust Aristotle, no great genius has ever been without a touch of insanity. The mind cannot use lofty language, above that of the common herd, unless it be excited. When it has spurned aside the commonplace environments of custom, and rises sublime, instinct with sacred fire, then alone can it chant a song too grand for mortal lips: as long as it continues to dwell within itself it cannot rise to any pitch of splendor: it must break away from the beaten track, and lash itself to frenzy, till it gnaws the curb and rushes away bearing up its rider to heights whither it would fear to climb when alone.
”
”
Seneca
“
I Am My Teacher (Sonnet 1234)
I teach myself when I need to learn something,
I correct myself when I make mistakes.
No two year old shaped as 40, 50, 60 or 70,
Has the maturity to provide me moral guidance.
I taught myself electronics when I fell for it,
I taught myself music in my youthful high.
I taught myself languages in sheer obsession,
I taught myself aeronautics when I wanted to fly.
Critics mail, I should add "biggest ego" to my bio,
I thank them all for an astounding revelation.
If I actually behaved befitting my capacity,
Half your legends will lose their reputation.
You only see the tip of the ice-berg,
Fullness of the Himalayas you'll never see.
I chose to put many of my passions aside,
One path, one mission - one answer to calamity.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect)
“
...we have no right to decide off-hand that it is an unnatural pleasure to eat sawdust. A man might be constituted so that he liked it. And so long as his peculiarity doesn't damage or interfere with other people, there's no reason why he shouldn't be left alone.
But if it is the man's fixed belief that sawdust eating is essential to human happiness; if he attributes almost everything that happens either to the effects of eating it or not eating it; if he imagines that most of the people he meets are also sawdust-eaters, and above all, if he thinks that the salvation of the world depends entirely upon making laws to compel people to eat sawdust, whether they like it or not, then it is fair to say that his mind is unbalanced on the subject; and that, further, the practice itself, however innocent it may appear, is in that particular case perverse. Sanity consists in the proper equilibrium of ideas in general. That is the only sense in which it is true that genius is connected with insanity.
”
”
Aleister Crowley (Diary of a Drug Fiend)
“
An entire horde, a generation of open-minded, healthy lads pounces upon the work of diseased genius, genialized by disease, admires and praises it, raises it to the skies, perpetuates it, transmutes it, and bequeathes it to civilization, which does not live on the home-baked bread of health alone. They all swear by the name of the great invalid, thanks to whose madness they no longer need to be mad. Their healthfulness feeds upon his madness and in them he will become healthy.
In other words, certain attainments of the soul and the intellect are impossible without disease, without insanity, without spiritual crime, and the great invalids are crucified victims, sacrificed to humanity and its advancement, to the broadening of its feeling and knowledge – in short, to its more sublime health. They force us to re-evaluate the concepts of 'disease' and 'health,' the relation of sickness and life, they teach us to be cautious in our approach to the idea of disease, for we are too prone always to give it a biological minus sign.
”
”
Thomas Mann
“
If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or event insanity it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life of conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-sentenced herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal, - that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt that they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man.
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau)
“
I cooked with so many of the greats: Tom Colicchio, Eric Ripert, Wylie Dufresne, Grant Achatz. Rick Bayless taught me not one but two amazing mole sauces, the whole time bemoaning that he never seemed to know what to cook for his teenage daughter. Jose Andres made me a classic Spanish tortilla, shocking me with the sheer volume of viridian olive oil he put into that simple dish of potatoes, onions, and eggs. Graham Elliot Bowles and I made gourmet Jell-O shots together, and ate leftover cheddar risotto with Cheez-Its crumbled on top right out of the pan.
Lucky for me, Maria still includes me in special evenings like this, usually giving me the option of joining the guests at table, or helping in the kitchen. I always choose the kitchen, because passing up the opportunity to see these chefs in action is something only an idiot would do. Susan Spicer flew up from New Orleans shortly after the BP oil spill to do an extraordinary menu of all Gulf seafood for a ten-thousand-dollar-a-plate fund-raising dinner Maria hosted to help the families of Gulf fishermen. Local geniuses Gil Langlois and Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard joined forces with Gale Gand for a seven-course dinner none of us will ever forget, due in no small part to Gil's hoisin oxtail with smoked Gouda mac 'n' cheese, Stephanie's roasted cauliflower with pine nuts and light-as-air chickpea fritters, and Gale's honey panna cotta with rhubarb compote and insane little chocolate cookies. Stephanie and I bonded over hair products, since we have the same thick brown curls with a tendency to frizz, and the general dumbness of boys, and ended up giggling over glasses of bourbon till nearly two in the morning. She is even more awesome, funny, sweet, and genuine in person than she was on her rock-star winning season on Bravo. Plus, her food is spectacular all day. I sort of wish she would go into food television and steal me from Patrick. Allen Sternweiler did a game menu with all local proteins he had hunted himself, including a pheasant breast over caramelized brussels sprouts and mushrooms that melted in your mouth (despite the occasional bit of buckshot). Michelle Bernstein came up from Miami and taught me her white gazpacho, which I have since made a gajillion times, as it is probably one of the world's perfect foods.
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Stacey Ballis (Off the Menu)
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Meanwhile, he continued to speak out on behalf of black citizens. In March 1846, a terrifying massacre took place in Seward’s hometown. A twenty-three-year-old black man named William Freeman, recently released from prison after serving five years for a crime it was later determined he did not commit, entered the home of John Van Nest, a wealthy farmer and friend of Seward’s. Armed with two knives, he killed Van Nest, his pregnant wife, their small child, and Mrs. Van Nest’s mother. When he was caught within hours, Freeman immediately confessed. He exhibited no remorse and laughed uncontrollably as he spoke. The sheriff hauled him away, barely reaching the jail ahead of an enraged mob intent upon lynching him. “I trust in the mercy of God that I shall never again be a witness to such an outburst of the spirit of vengeance as I saw while they were carrying the murderer past our door,” Frances Seward told her husband, who was in Albany at the time. “Fortunately, the law triumphed.” Frances recognized at once an “incomprehensible” aspect to the entire affair, and she was correct. Investigation revealed a history of insanity in Freeman’s family. Moreover, Freeman had suffered a series of floggings in jail that had left him deaf and deranged. When the trial opened, no lawyer was willing to take Freeman’s case. The citizens of Auburn had threatened violence against any member of the bar who dared to defend the cold-blooded murderer. When the court asked, “Will anyone defend this man?” a “death-like stillness pervaded the crowded room,” until Seward rose, his voice strong with emotion, and said, “May it please the court, I shall remain counsel for the prisoner until his death!
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Doris Kearns Goodwin (Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln)
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Only time itself can prove if a man is a genius or is simply insane.
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James M. Robinson (Genesis: A New World Order (The Sixth Extinction #1))
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There are many perks to living for twenty-one centuries, and foremost among them is bearing witness to the rare birth of genius. It invariably goes like this: Someone shrugs off the weight of his cultural traditions, ignores the baleful stares of authority, and does something his countrymen think to be completely batshit insane. Of those, Galileo was my personal favorite. Van Gogh comes in second, but he really was batshit insane. Thank
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Kevin Hearne (Hounded, Hexed, Hammered - The Iron Druid Chronicles Bundle (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #1-3))
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Most tourists, having done some research on Chicago delicacies, order their Italian beef sandwiches "wet," meaning that a slosh of extra meat gravy is dumped over the beef once it is in the bread. They think it means they are in the know, much as they do when they order a Chicago hot dog and tell the seller to "drag it through the garden." Chicagoans, almost to a person, order their dogs simply with "everything" if they want the seven classic toppings, and their Italian beef "dipped," meaning that the whole sandwich, once assembled, is grasped gently between tongs and completely submerged briefly in the vat of jus. This results in a sandwich that isn't just moist, it's decadently squooshy, in a way that sends rivulets of salty meaty juice down your arm when you eat.
This is the sandwich that necessitated the invention of the Chicago Sandwich Stance, a method of eating with your elbows resting on your dining surface, leaning over to hopefully save shirtfronts and ties from a horrible meaty baptism. Dipped Italian beef sandwiches in Chicago require a full commitment. Once you start, you are all in till the last bit of slushy bread and shred of spicy beef is gone. It requires that beverages have straws and proximity. Because if you try to stop midway, to pop in a French fry, or pick up a cup, the whole thing will disintegrate before your very eyes. You can lean over to sip something as long as you don't let go of your grasp on the sandwich. Fries are saved for dessert.
Most people wouldn't suspect how good iced coffee would be with Italian beef and French fries, but it is genius. My personal genius. Bringing sweet and bitter and cold to the hot, salty umami bomb of the sandwich and the crispy fries- insanely good.
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Stacey Ballis (Recipe for Disaster)
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Like most of the giants who revolutionize math or science, Cantor was 100% a man of his time and place, and his accomplishments were the usual conjunction of extraordinary personal brilliance and courage* and just the right context of general problems and conditions that, in hindsight, tend to make intellectual advances seem inevitable and their authors almost incidental.
*Naturally, the significant results that legitimize a mathematical theory take time to derive, and then even more time to be fully accepted, and of course throughout this time the Insanity-v.-Genius question remains undecided, probably even for the mathematician himself, so that he’s developing his theory and cooking his proofs under conditions of enormous personal stress and doubt, and sometimes isn’t even vindicated in his own lifetime, etc.
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David Foster Wallace (Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity)
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Am I insane or a genius?
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Steven Magee
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Evil genius is genius nonetheless. In the early 1970s, at the zenith of liberal-left influence, an improbable, quixotic, out-of-power economic right—intellectuals, capitalists, politicians—launched their crusade and then kept at it tenaciously. The unthinkable became the inevitable in a single decade. They envisioned a new American trajectory, then popularized and arranged it with remarkable success. How was that fundamentally different American future—that is, our present—designed and enacted? And how might it happen again in the other direction? There are lessons to be learned: having big ideas and strong convictions, keeping your eye on the ball, playing a long game. There are also some relevant cautionary tales from the last few decades—it’d be nice if in success the left could avoid some of the viciousness, lying, cynicism, nihilism, and insanity that overtook the right after victory.
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Kurt Andersen (Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America)
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AI Deception (The Sonnet)
Anybody can be a singer using Autotune,
Using ChatGPT anybody can be a writer.
But I'm yet to find an AI that can compose,
Love thy neighbor, or love has no gender.
Yet the problem is, neither human
nor AI can detect AI generation.
The world is already being flooded
with soulless, deceitful creation.
In the midst of such grave misgivings,
Honor alone can bring illumination.
Before you place anyone on pedestal,
Observe character beyond the creation.
Even I use photoshop, to enhance my covers,
But the words beneath are unvarnished Naskar.
AI can be a great help if you know how to
use it honorably, so originality is empowered.
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Abhijit Naskar (Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect)
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Genius writers write simple,
Garbage writers write fancy.
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Abhijit Naskar (Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect)
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I taught myself electronics when I fell for it,
I taught myself music in my youthful high.
I taught myself languages in sheer obsession,
I taught myself aeronautics when I wanted to fly.
You only see the tip of the ice-berg,
Fullness of the Himalayas you'll never see.
I chose to put many of my passions aside,
One path, one mission - one answer to calamity.
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Abhijit Naskar (Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect)
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Genius is a curse. That’s how I look at it. Some think that the brilliant comprehend the universe in a way the rest of us can’t. They see the world how it truly is—and that reality is so horrible they lose their minds. Clarity leads to insanity.
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Harlan Coben
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The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success, kid.
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John Ringo (Into the Real (TransDimensional Hunter #1))
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I just want to write - in peace, on peace, for peace.
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Abhijit Naskar (Her Insan Ailem: Everyone is Family, Everywhere is Home)
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They say every creative genius is touched by insanity. I don’t believe that’s true. Creatives exist between the blank spaces where the Rational scrutinize and the Insane contemplate,
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Aryles Adams
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The distance between insanity and genius Is measured only by success.
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JohnA Passaro (6 Minutes Wrestling With Life (Every Breath Is Gold #1))
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Genius and insanity were often separated only by the results. Unfortunately, sometimes it could take generations before you really saw the full scale of the results, and this was one of those times,
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Evan Currie (The Heart of Matter (Odyssey One, #2))
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A completed mediocre idea is infinitely better than an unfinished stroke of genius.
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Andrew Mayne (How to Write a Novella in 24 Hours: And other questionable & possibly insane advice on creativity for writers)
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Habitually, and perhaps unconsciously, Hubbard would fill this gap—between reality and his interpretation of it—with mythology. This was the source of what some call his genius and others call his insanity. WHEN
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Lawrence Wright (Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief)
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Insanity and genius are two sides of the same hand-knitted tea cosy,’ Drakeforth
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Paul Mannering (Engines of Empathy (Drakeforth Trilogy #1))
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agical obsession is that state of mind when the mind is illuminated by sub-conscious activity evoked voluntarily by means of deliberate magical formula at a time of our own choosing, for the purpose of inspiration. It is the condition of genius. Any other form of obsession is a matter of ‘the blind leading the blind’, known as mediumism, a passive opening out of the ego to any external influence, elementals or disembodied energy. Such a transmuted consciousness actually constitutes a resistance to ‘true’ unconscious activity. It is a form of voluntary insanity, a sleep-walking of the Ego with no kind of form or control to guide it, hence its emanations tend to be either stupid in suggestion, or memories of childhood.
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Austin Osman Spare (Book of Pleasure in Plain English)
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The dividing line between genius and insanity is very thin and quite permeable - which is why so many geniuses descend into madness.
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Nick Cutter (The Troop)
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Genius has its limitations. Insanity … not so much.
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