C S Lewis - Havelock Ellis - Richard Dawkins - Sam Harris - Friedrich Nietzsche - Aldous Huxley - Stephen King - Ralph Waldo Emerson - George Orwell - David Lloyd George - William Shakespeare - Matthew 15:17-18
A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. C S Lewis
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence, since Jerusalem, of a lunatic asylum. Havelock Ellis
It’s been pointed out that if you were the only person who held those beliefs you’d probably be locked up in an asylum. But because lots of people hold them it becomes a sort of respectable accepted thing. Richard Dawkins, interviewing Ian McEwan
We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them ‘religious’; otherwise, they are likely to be called ‘mad’, ‘psychotic’ or ‘delusional’. Sam Harris, The End of Faith
The danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy. ibid.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. Friedrich Nietzsche
Man is so intelligent that he feels impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic. Aldous Huxley
Schizoid behaviour is a pretty common thing in children. It’s accepted, because all we adults have this unspoken agreement that children are lunatics. Stephen King
A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic. Ralph Waldo Emerson
But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong. George Orwell, 1984
What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy? ibid.
The world is becoming like a lunatic asylum run by lunatics. David Lloyd George, cited Observer 8th January 1933
Polonius: I have found
The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy ...
Queen: I doubt it is no other but the main,
His father’s death, and our o’erhasty marriage. William Shakespeare, Hamlet II ii 48-49, Polonius to King
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me.
And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Matthew 17:15-18