110 Insanity Quotes To Help You Stay Sane in the Chaos That is Life

What does it mean to be insane?

There are mental illnesses such as schizophrenia which used to result in the sufferer being called insane, but these quotes aren’t really about the medical standard of insanity.

These insanity quotes are more about having people tell you that you are insane because you do not agree with their societal view, or you have “crazy” dreams.

Maybe you have so much worry and stress happening that you don’t feel like yourself, and think your sanity is slipping due to the madness of the world around us.

These quotes about insanity will help answer what separates sane and insane.

They will explore the insanity that is this life, and show how someone’s insane view might be beneficial for the world.

Or maybe, they will just make you laugh and question your own sanity.

If you enjoy this article, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily motivation. 

Browse our entire collection of inspirational quotes for more motivating ideas and concepts.

Insanity quotes on the line between sane and insane

1. “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”― Edgar Allan Poe

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2. “We are all born mad. Some remain so.” – Samuel Beckett

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3. “You can’t be old and wise if you were never young and crazy.”― Chris Brown

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4. “The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.”― Bruce Feirstein

5. “Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world usually do.”― Steve Jobs

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6. “Craziness is what makes the world go round, without crazy, there wouldn’t be passion.” – Wes Campton

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7. “I may be crazy but it keeps me from going insane.” – Waylon Jennings

8. “It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than to be absolutely boring.” – Marilyn Monroe

9. “The reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day.”― Anne Lamott

10. “When the whole world is crazy, it doesn’t pay to be sane.”― Terry Goodkind

Insanity quotes about life

11. “Madness and insanity are two terms that are so vague and relative that you can’t really apportion proper values to them. The only thing I can think of that has any use it functional and dysfunctional. Are you working as well? In which case, it doesn’t matter if you are mad.” ― Alan Moore

12. “Don’t worry if people think you’re crazy. You are crazy. You have that kind of intoxicating insanity that lets other people dream outside of the lines and become who they’re destined to be.”― Jennifer Elisabeth

13. “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”― Philip K. Dick, VALIS

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14. “Sane is boring.”― R. A. Salvatore

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15. “Being crazy isn’t enough.”― Dr. Seuss

16. “To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something; to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little.”― Criss Jami

17. “The best things in life are crazy.”― Emme Rollins

18. “Life is absolutely insane. Yes, life is insane but the great wisdom lies in choosing your insanity wisely.”— Paulo Coelho

19. “Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.”― Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

20. “I know you think I’m crazy. Maybe that’s because I am. About life, about this moment, about you.”― Crystal Woods

21. “The Edge… There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”― Hunter S. Thompson

Insanity quotes on how your insanity might change the world

22. “It’s not like I planned it. I never woke up from some rosy dream and said, “Okay, world, today I’m gonna spaz.”― Shannon Celebi

23. “Only, as long as we’re going insane we may as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value.”―S. S. Van Dine

24. “It’s okay to be crazy and scared and brave at the same time!”― Kelly Epperson

25. “The manic relief that comes from the fantasy that we can with one savage slash cut the chains of the past and rise like a phoenix, free of all history, is generally a tipping point into insanity, akin to believing that we can escape the endless constraints of gravity, and fly off a tall building. “I’m freeeee… SPLAT!”.”― Stefan Molyneux

26. “A long time ago I stopped wondering why there are so many crazy people. What surprises me now is that there are so many sane ones.”― Rachel Khong

27. “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.” ― John Lennon

28. “The wisdom of insecurity.’ This is the ability to flow with the changes, to see everything as a process of change, to relax with uncertainty.”― Jack Kornfield

29. “I do not oppose the insane asylum—but I abhor and condemn the cutthroat system that robs man of his reason, drives him to insanity and makes the lunatic asylum an indispensable adjunct to every civilized community.”― Eugene V. Debs

30. “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” ― Jack Kerouac

Funny insanity quotes

31. “If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.” – H.S. Thompson

32. “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends. If they’re ok, then it’s you.”― Rita Mae Brown

33. “I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.”― Antonin Artaud

34. “You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody’s crazy.” – Charles Manson

35. “A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.”― Franz Kafka (see more Franz Kafka quotes)

36. “I don’t suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.”―Unknown

37. “We don’t just embrace INSANITY here. We feel it up, french kiss it and then buy it a drink.”―Anonymous

38. “Love is a temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder.”―Ambrose Bierce

Insanity quotes that will make you question normalcy

39. “Sane is the insanity most call normality put forth by society.”― Erik Till

40. “We share out craziness, our neuroses, our little bit of screwed-up-ness that comes from our family. We share it. And it feels like love.”―Unknown

41. “Stubbornness and staunch, they are both the same things from different points of view, such crazy and eccentric.”― Toba Beta

42. “Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” – R.A. Wilson

43. “Sometimes there’s no cure for the crazy.” Dale sighed, stroking my hair. “I think we all just have to keep loving through it. Maybe that’s the cure.”― Emme Rollins

44. “Some may never live, but the crazy never die.” – H.S. Thompson

45. “Crazy people are considered mad by the rest of society only because their intelligence isn’t understood.” – Weihui Zhou

46. “Insanity is relative. Who sets the norm.”― Charles Bukowski (see more Charles Bukowski quotes)

47. “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”―Friedrich Nietzsche

48. “You’ve been on the edge of insanity your entire life, haven’t you? So many people called you crazy you actually started to believe it. You wondered if they were right. You wondered if you could fix it. You thought if you could just try a little harder, be a little better, smarter, nicer – you thought the world would change its mind about you. You blamed yourself for everything.”―Tahereh Mafi

49. “If being crazy means living life as if it matters, then I don’t care if we are completely insane.”―Unknown

50. “I smile because you’ve all finally driven me insane.”―Anonymous

More insanity quotes and sayings

51. The reason I talk to myself is that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” – George Carlin

52. “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.” – Oscar Levant

53. “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

54. One person’s craziness is another person’s reality.” – Tim Burton

55. “If you think anyone is sane you just don’t know enough about them.” – Christopher Moore

56. We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

57. “One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

58. Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be.” – Toni Morrison

59. “The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” – Nikola Tesla

60. “Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.” – Ray Bradbury

Insanity quotes that will make you think

61. “Insanity is everyone expecting you not to fall apart when you find out everything you believed in was a lie.” ― Shannon L. Alder

62. “All writers are insane!” ― Cornelia Funke

63. “That’s why crazy people are so dangerous. You think they’re nice until they’re chaining you up in the garage.” ― Michael Buckley

64. “Everybody looks a little crazy if you’re looking close enough and if you can’t look that close, then you don’t really love them.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

65. “Perfect sanity is a myth propagated by straitjacket salesmen.” ― Rebecca McKinsey

66. “Religious fanaticism is the most dangerous form of insanity.” ― Robert Graves

67. “Supposedly there’s an actual, researched link between extreme creativity and mental illness, and I believe it because I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” ― Deb Caletti

68. “His own naivety taunted him like a flicker of madness.” ― Jane Harper

69. “When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.” ― Hermann Hesse

70. “Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night.” ― Charles Fisher

Powerful insanity quotes to ponder on

71. “Not everyone is capable of madness; and of those lucky enough to be capable, not many have the courage for it.” ― August Strindberg

72. In a crazy world, it’s only your insanity that will keep you sane.” ― Leo Buscaglia

73. “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” ― Robin Williams

74. “When you live in the shadow of insanity, the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event.” ― Robert M. Pirsig

75. “Insanity is contagious.” ― Joseph Heller

76. “There is in every madman a misunderstood genius whose idea, shining in his head, frightened people, and for whom delirium was the only solution to the strangulation that life had prepared for him.” ― Antonin Artaud

77. “When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”
― Mark Twain

78. “When the world goes mad, one must accept madness as sanity; since sanity is, in the last analysis, nothing but the madness on which the whole world happens to agree.” ― George Bernard Shaw

79. “Sometimes the person who is the most logical is the person whom we call insane.” ― Kevin Spacey

80. “Insanity – a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.” ― R. D. Laing

Short Insanity Quotes 

81. “Staying in the house always breeds a sort of insanity. Every house is, in this sense, a hospital.” — Henry David Thoreau

82. “Insanity is arguing with reality.” — Byron Katie

83. “Falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It’s kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity.” — Amy Adams

84. “But we are all insane, anyway. Note the mountain-climbers.” — Mark Twain

85. “The pursuit of truth, properly considered, shouldn’t stop short of insanity.” — Errol Morris

86. “Insanity is the insistence on meaning.” — Frank Bidart

87. “Insanity is just a state of mind.” — Alan Alda

88. “Acting is a way of living out one’s insanity.” — Isabelle Huppert

89. “To the sober person adventurous conduct often seems insanity.” — Aristotle

90. “I’m a perfectionist, to the point of insanity.” — Tom Ford

Insanity Quotes to Sharpen Your Wit

91. “A sane man often reasons from sound premises; an insane man commonly reasons as well, but the premises are unsound.” ― Austin O’Malley

92. “Insanity in individuals is something rare — but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

93. “Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.” ― T. S. Eliot

94. “Gambling is a way of throwing money down the toilet without people calling you insane.” ― Djamel Ouis

95. “Insanity can be treated but not foolishness.” ― Sukuma Wisdom

96. “Genius is one of the many forms of insanity.” ― Cesare Lombroso

97. “For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.” ― Jean Dubuffet

98. “Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.” ― Angela Monet

99. “Insanity destroys reason, but not wit.” ― Nathaniel Emmons

100. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” ― Albert Einstein

Mind-Bending Insanity Quotes to Challenge Your Perception

101. “It has become my mission to stop the insanity of wild cats as pets.” ― Tippi Hedren

102. “You need a little bit of insanity to do great things.” ― Henry Rollins

103. “Look, we’re all saddled with things that make us better or worse. This world is a crazy place, and I’ve chosen to make my work about that insanity.” ― Barbara Kruger

104. “Professional comedians, surprisingly, have a lack of humor. They’re insensitive to the insanity of our times.” ― Mort Sahl

105. “I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.” ― Rumi

106. “I attributed the incidence to temporary insanity, and in my own defense, I’d like to say I haven’t run over anyone since.” ― Janet Evanovich

107. Insanity hovered close at hand, like an eager waiter at an expensive restaurant.” ― Arundhati Roy

108. “I don’t suffer from insanity. I can actually say that I enjoy it.” ― Tim Dorsey

109. “Innocence is a kind of insanity.” ― Graham Greene

110. “We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.” ― Alain de Botton

I hope you are feeling a little calmer than before you started reading, if for no other reason, then you got to take a quick break from the pressure around you.

If you are a person who feels they thrive in the insanity, there were even a few quotes thrown in for you! 

What did you learn from these insanity quotes?

As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Do you believe that?

Edison said, “I didn’t fail at 1,000 times at making a light bulb.

The light bulb was an invention of 1,000 steps.”

I wonder how many people thought he was insane?

Can you imagine where we would be without modern lighting…CRAZY!

What’s your biggest takeaway from these thoughtful insanity quotes?

Leave me a comment and share your thoughts!