Ann Brashares Quotes

A mood can be a dangerous state of mind, because it can crush reason under the weight of feeling.

There's nothing clinically wrong with me, only an emotional imbalance - I pass too quickly from the wildest enthusiasm to the blackest despair.

My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne.

When the pressures really mount, the neurotic must choose: Shall he have a good cry, or set fire to his neighbor's house?

I'm very emotional; I think I may go mad in several years' time.

Just like my mom, when things get bad, I get quiet. The worse they get, the more silent I become.

I am probably a bit numb upstairs, which is sometimes a good thing.

I have lived one step away from losing my mind for years. I am quick and accurate in spotting unstable streaks in others.

I had a lot of frustrations, and I was drinking far too much, and I was just trying to survive and this is what came out of it.

-You are on the verge of being truly mad. -No, not at all. Look at me. I can tie my shoelaces. See?

When that ineffable compound of depression, sadness (these two are not the same), anxiety, self-hatred, sense of failure and fear for the future begins to steal over you, start telling yourself that what you have is a hangover. You are not sickening for anything, you have not suffered a minor brain lesion, you are not all that bad at your job, your family and friends are not leagued in a conspiracy of barely maintained silence about what a s**t you are, you have not come at last to see life as it really is and there is no use crying over spilt milk.

I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.

Depression seems to be related to fear, anger and frustration. When you're in a bad mood, even if you meet with your friends, you don't take pleasure in their company. But when you're in a good mood, even if things go wrong, you can cope with them without difficulty. This is why putting yourself in a good mood, making a point of developing a sense of loving kindness gives you greater inner strength.

When I've had a meltdown, people will say to me, "Well, you failed to keep your sense of humor."

If I had a nervous breakdown every time something awful happened in the world, I'd be crazier than a shithouse rat.

Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.

It is so hard to learn to put sadness in perspective so hard to understand that it is a feeling that comes in degrees, it can be a candle burning gently and harmlessly in your home, or it can be a full-fledged forest fire that destroy almost everything and is controlled by almost nothing. It can also be so much in-between

If he were a man of strong mind, it only gave him fits; but a person of mere average intellect it usually sent mad.

So sadness is a place?' Giovanni asked. 'Sometimes people live there for years,'I said.

If I could not smile, I think my situation would be even more serious.

Anger is a choice, as well as a habit. It is a learned reaction to frustration, in which you behave in ways that you would rather not. In fact, severe anger is a form of insanity. You are insane whenever you are not in control of your behavior. Therefore, when you are angry and out of control, you are temporarily insane.

It's very rare that people let me hop off the crazy wagon.

Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations. And by this, in an especial manner, we acquire wisdom and knowledge, and see and hear and know what are foul and what are fair, what are bad and what are good, what are sweet and what are unsavory…. And by the same organ we become mad and delirious, and fears and terrors assail us….All these things we endure from the brain when it is not healthy….In these ways I am of the opinion that the brain exercises the greatest power in the man.

It is important to remember that at first blush, going sane feels just like going crazy.