In view of all this, I have no doubt that Cambyses was completely out of his mind; it is the only possible explanation of his assault upon, and mockery of, everything which ancient law and custom have made sacred in Egypt. If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably, after careful consideration of their relative merits, choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best; and that being so, it is unlikely that anyone but a madman would mock at such things. There is abundant evidence that this is the universal feeling about the ancient customs of one's country. One might recall, in particular, an anecdote of Darius. When he was king of Persia, he summoned the Greeks who happened to be present in his court, and asked them what they would take to eat the dead bodies of their fathers. They replied that they would not do it for any money in the world. Later, in the presence of the Greeks, and through an interpreter, so that they could understand what was said, he asked some Indians, of the tribe called the Callatiae, who do in fact eat their parents' dead bodies, what they would take to burn them. They uttered a cry of horror and forbade him to mention such a dreadful thing. One can see by this what custom can do, and Pindar, in my opinion, was right when he called it king of all.
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There is in every madman a misunderstood genius whose idea, shining in his head, frightened people, and for whom delirium was the only solution to the strangulation that life had prepared for him.
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And what is an authentic madman? It is a man who preferred to become mad, in the socially accepted sense of the word, rather than forfeit a certain superior idea of human honor. So society has strangled in its asylums all those it wanted to get rid of or protect itself from, because they refused to become its accomplices in certain great nastinesses. For a madman is also a man whom society did not want to hear and whom it wanted to prevent from uttering certain intolerable truths.
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Nor has his death the world deceiv'd than his wondrous life surprise d; if he like a madman liv'd least he like a wise one dy'd.
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Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.
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Would Alexander, madman as he was, have been so much a madman, had it not been for Homer?
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The effort to remold, in one's own life, the culture one has grown into is heavy with danger. The searcher is likely to be treated as a criminal or a madman, condemned and criticized by his own society, ridiculed, even persecuted. Even if he is more fortunate--even if he is simply ignored by others--he must begin his struggle as a cripple. For to consciously reject the generalized attitudes' of the parent society is to reject positive reference points that have helped him evaluate his actions and accomplishments.This is the price of freedom on the peripheries. We are able to free ourselves from our parent culture only by destroying parts of ourselves, much as an animal might escape the hunter's trap by gnawing off its own leg. But unlike the wounded animal, the detached person is doubly crippled; however he mutilates himself, he will never quite be free of the trap but will carry it with him in his new freedom.
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A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
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As I walk thru darkness I see Death pass by, to afraid to get near me. Waiting for my time while drugs consume me. My soul on fire waiting to explode and my heart growing so ever cold. Confused and alone I wait no longer. Insanity has taken over. A madman to watch over.
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What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.
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There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.
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We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also.
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The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad
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The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. He is the man who has lost everything except his reason.
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The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad.
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The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad.
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It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities.
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Only the madman is absolutely sure.
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If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.
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The only difference between a madman and myself is that I am not mad.
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Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.
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It is pleasant at times to play the madman.
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