Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- When reality becomes too absurd or oppressive, insanity can be a rational defense mechanism.
- In plain terms
- Going crazy might be the only sensible response to a crazy world.
- What can you take from it?
- Sanity is relative to the environment you are in.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes something seem insane?
- Is sanity always the right goal?
Another view
It risks normalizing mental illness rather than addressing root causes.
More from Philip Kindred Dick
We hypostasize information into objects. Rearrangement of objects is change in the content of the information; the message has changed. This is a language whic…
Permalink to quote #56 A lot can be said for the infinite mercies of God, but the smarts of a good pharmacist, when you get down to it, is worth more.
Permalink to quote #58 Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
Permalink to quote #55
Related quotes
A paranoid-schizophrenic is a guy who just found out what's going on.
William S. BurroughsWilliam S. Burroughs quote #16 The world used us as an excuse to go mad.
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison quote #30 To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart.'
Wendell BerryWendell Berry quote #63