One said of suicide, 'As long as one has brains one should not blow them out.' And another answered, 'But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.'
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The witty reply suggests that the people who need to stop suicide are often no longer capable of reasoning.
- In plain terms
- People who want to kill themselves often have lost the reason to stop.
- What can you take from it?
- Mental crises override rational advice.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does logic help in deep despair?
- How do you talk to someone in crisis?
Another view
Some crises respond well to rational argument.
More from F. H. Bradley
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
Permalink to quote #10 The man who has ceased to fear has ceased to care.
Permalink to quote #12 Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.
Permalink to quote #9
Related quotes
I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes…
H. P. LovecraftH. P. Lovecraft quote #5 Sheila Wood: If you're so unhappy Nick, why haven't you killed yourself? Drake: It's too cowardly, and besides, I don't have the courage.
Nick DrakeNick Drake quote #10 The rational man may talk a good game about suicide, but reason must give way to obsession and finally squalor before he can actually do it.
Wilfrid SheedWilfrid Sheed quote #11