Arthur Koestler Quotes

Are we, then, insane because we have not gone mad?

A sane man often reasons from sound premises; an insane man commonly reasons as well, but the premises are unsound.

The logic of a madman is a sane man's confusion.

A lot of the time I'm semi-insane, but there is a slight bit of intelligence there.

To understand this for sense it is not required that a man should be a geometrician or a logician, but that he should be mad.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong

Our occasional madness is less wonderful than our occasional sanity.

--Why are we fighting them? --They're mad. We're sane. --How do we know? --That we're sane? --Yes. --Am I sane? --To all appearances. --And you, do you consider yourself sane? --I do. --Well, there you have it. --But don't they also consider themselves sane? --I think they know. Deep down. That they're not sane. --How must that make them feel? --Terrible, I should think. They must fight ever more fiercely, in order to deny what they know to be true. That they are not sane.

If there were only one person in the world, is there any way he could be insane?

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad, but chess players do.

Everyone's crazy anyway. And those who think they aren't, are the ones who are even crazier - because they're in denial.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking.

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom.

Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane more sane. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane.

The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad.

I'm not a madman.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.

There's a big difference between sanity and insanity.

Consciousness allows you the capacity to plan.

In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane.

Between incomprehensible and incoherent sits the madhouse. I am not in the madhouse.

No, I won't leave the world--I'll enter a lunatic asylum and see if the profundity of insanity reveals to me the riddles of life. Idiot, why didn't I do that long ago, why has it taken me so long to understand what it means when the Indians honour the insane, step aside for them? Yes, a lunatic asylum--don't you think I may end up there?