Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Kurosawa points out the absurdity of societal norms by claiming sanity is relative to the environment.
In plain terms
Sanity is relative to the environment.
What can you take from it?
If the world is chaotic, adherence to normal rules becomes irrational.

Where it applies

  • social critique
  • mental health
  • philosophy

Putting it to work

  • question norms
  • assess environment
  • redefine sanity

Questions to consider

  • What defines sanity in your view?
  • Is normalcy always rational?

Another view

It risks justifying harmful behavior if the world is deemed mad.

More from Akira Kurosawa

  1. Man is a genius when he is dreaming.

    Permalink to quote #2
  2. With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script eve…

    Permalink to quote #3
  3. It is quite enough if a human being has but one thing where he is strong. If a human being were strong in everything it wouldn't be nice for other people, woul…

    Permalink to quote #4

Related quotes

  1. It had always been a notion of mine that sanity is like a clearing in the jungle where the humans agree to meet from time to time and behave in certain fixed w…

    Wilfrid SheedWilfrid Sheed quote #3
  2. The world used us as an excuse to go mad.

    George HarrisonGeorge Harrison quote #30
  3. To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart.'

    Wendell BerryWendell Berry quote #63