Susanna Kaysen Quotes

I am not a nurse escorting six lunatics to the ice cream parlor.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

The only people who ever called me a rebel were people who wanted me to do what they wanted.

Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.

All in all you're just another brick in the wall

You’re loitering, citizen.” “Actually, I was hesitating.

It doesn't matter whether or not you have a head, you must wear the right sort of hat

Self-conscious? Try a wig, a corset, a veil, a beard. Or cultivate shamelessness.

You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity.

I'm naturally quite conformist, really. If I go to a country and they say, "You've got to drive on the right," I'm not going to drive on the left to show that I'm different. I'm able to stick to the law.

Is it you and I who are crazy, or is it everybody else?

Any kind of dictatorship, I'm uneasy. I just don't like dictators. I don't like crowds. I don't like hordes, and I don't like other people telling me what to do. This is probably a reaction against people telling me what to do when I was a kid. I won't join any group, espouse a cause against some other people.

It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.

We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by.

Obedience is our universal duty and destiny; wherein whoso will not bend must break; too early and too thoroughly we cannot be trained to know that "would," in this world of ours, is a mere zero to "should," and for most part as the smallest of fractions even to "shall.

Always be on time. Never try to make any personal engagements. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Never be disturbed by anything. Always do what you're told to do as quickly as possible. Remember to lean back in a parade, so that people can see your husband. Don't get too fat to ride three on a seat. Get out of the way as quickly as you're not needed.

Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it.

Beneath the seemingly rational exterior of our lives is a fear of insanity. We dare not question the values by which we live or rebel against the roles we play for fear of putting our sanity in doubt.

Power, from the standpoint of experience, is merely the relation that exists between the expression of someone's will and the execution of that will by others.

Men live in glad obedience to the masters they believe in, or they live in a frictional opposition to the master they wish to undermine.

Beware of being too rational. In the country of the insane, the integrated man doesn't become king. He gets lynched.

Everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts - and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?

The man who gives his own decisions priority over society is a criminal.

The minister said, “Let us pray,” but as everyone else bowed their head, I could only stare slack-jawed at the sight of Peter Van Houten. After a moment, he whispered, “We gotta fake pray,” and bowed his head.

Anyone who is different or is slightly out of the norm, is considered crazy.