Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.

The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all those more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.

Reality is the #1 cause of insanity among those who are in contact with it

Grammar is the analysis of language.

I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect - in terror.

Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.

As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles.