Mr. [Christopher] Smart the poet was here yesterday.... This ingenious writer is one of the most unfortunate of men--he has been t...wice confined in a mad house.... How great a pity so clever, so ingenious a man should be reduced to such shocking circumstances. He is extremely grave, and has still great wildness in his manner, looks and voice--'tis impossible to see him and to think of his works, without feeling the utmost pity and concern for him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When civil fury first grew high, And men fell out, they knew not why;... When hard words, jealousies, and fears, Set folks together by the ears, And made them fight, like mad or drunk, For Dame Religion, as for punk;LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In jail a man has no personality. He is a minor disposal problem and a few entries on reports. Nobody cares who loves or hates him..., what he looks like, what he did with his life. Nobody reacts to him unless he gives trouble. Nobody abuses him. All that is asked of him is that he go quietly to the right cell and remain quiet when he gets there. There is nothing to fight against, nothing to be mad at. The jailers are quiet men without animosity or sadism. All this stuff you read about men yelling and screaming, beating against the bars, running spoons along them, guards rushing in with clubs--all that is for the big house. A good jail is one of the quietest places in the world.... Life in jail is in suspension.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Men are mad most of their lives; few live sane, fewer die so.... The acts of people are baffling unless we realize that their wits... are disordered. Man is driven to justice by his lunacy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?... What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; And being men, hearing the will of Caesar,... It will inflame you, it will make you mad.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hamlet: Why was he sent into England? Grave-digger: Why, because a was mad. A shall recover his wits there; or if a do not, '...tis no great matter there. Hamlet: Why? Grave-digger: 'Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »