"Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the Earth goes round the Sun; today, to believe the past is inalterable. He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong."

Madness, Belief, Truth, Reality

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"Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the Earth goes round the Sun; today, to believe the past is inalterable. He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong."

Exlpore more Madness quotes

"Sometimes I wonder if the human race isn't collectively as mad as a sack of door knobs."

Jasper Fforde, British Novelist

Madness, Humanity, Absurdity, Reflection

"We take the names of madmen, because madness is our fate. Terribly melodramatic, that."

Michael Grant, American Author

Madness, Identity, Irony, Fate, Absurdity

"Mad I call it, for to define true madness, what is't to be nothing else but mad?"

William Shakespeare, English Dramatist

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"An ancient dictum says that when Zeus wanted to destroy someone, he would first drive him mad."

Jean-Marie Le Pen, French Politician

Madness, First

"We're not mad," he began, meaning he was. He was always a plural when mad, as though grammatically throwing his lot in with her mother gave him the power of her authority."

Thomm Quackenbush, American Author

Madness, Mother, Authority, Power

"We derive our vitality from our store of madness."

Emile M. Cioran, Romanian Philosopher

Madness, Vitality

"Sexton: I think the whole world's gone mad.Death: Uh-uh. It's always like this. You probably just don't get out enough."

Neil Gaiman, British Author

Madness, Reality, Life, Truth

"She had spears of straw and grass in her hair, not like Ophelia gone mad through contact with Hamlet's madness, but because she had slept in some stable loft."

Victor Hugo, French Author

Madness, Life, Mental, Truth

"Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence."

Ambrose Bierce, American Journalist

Madness, Independence

"Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."

William Shakespeare, English Dramatist

Madness, Regret, Truth, Power, Wisdom

Explore more quotes by George Orwell

"I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt."

Liberty

"Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell."

Civilization

"There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them."

Creativity

"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

Thought

"As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents."

Religion

"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting."

War

"The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history."

History

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