what a noble mind

O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!


William Shakespeare, Ophelia, in Hamlet, act 3, sc. 1.

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now.


Mark Twain - (1835-1910), U.S. author. Christian Science, bk. 1, ch. 5 (1907; repr. in What Is Man? ed. by Paul Baender, 1973).

The lightning flashes through my skull; mine eyeballs ache and ache; my whole beaten brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning ground.


Herman Melville - (1819-91), U.S. author. Captain Ahab, in Moby-Dick, ch. 119 (1851).

Pray look better, Sir . . . those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.


Miguel de Cervantes - (1547-1616), Spanish writer. Sancho Panza, in Don Quixote, pt. 1, bk. 1, ch. 8 (1605; tr. by P. Motteux).

He is mad past recovery, but yet he has lucid intervals.


Miguel de Cervantes - (1547-1616), Spanish writer. Don Lorenzo, in Don Quixote, pt. 2, bk. 5, ch. 18 (1615; tr. by P. Motteux), describing Don Quixote.

made the cactus in his own image

If God would choose a plant to represent him, I think he would choose of all plants the cactus. The cactus has all the blessings he tried, but mostly failed, to give to man. Let me tell you how. It has humility, but it is not submissive. It grows where no other plant will grow. It does not complain when the sun bakes it back or the wing tears it from the cliff or drowns it in the dry sand of the desert or when it is thirsty. When the rain comes it stores water for the hard times to come. In good times and in bad it will still flower. It protects itself against danger, but it harms no other plant. It adapts perfectly to almost any environment. It has patience and enjoys solitude. In Mexico there is a cactus that flowers only once every hundred years and at night. This is saintliness of an extraordinary kind, would you not agree? The cactus has properties that heal the wounds of men and from it come potions that can make man touch the face of God or stare into the mouth of hell. It is the plant of patience and solitude, love and madness, ugliness and beauty, toughness and gentleness. Of all plants, surely God made the cactus in his own image? It has my enduring respect and is my passion.


Doc's speech to Peekay's born-again Christian mother in The Power of One By Bryce Courtenay 518 pages. Random House.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.


Aristotle (384BC - 322BC) Greek writer, philosopher. Attributed by Seneca in Moral Essays, "De Tranquillitate Animi" (On Tranquility of Mind), sct. 17, subsct. 10.

May God hold you in his hand, my poor Don Quixote, for it seems to me you have leaped from the high peak of your madness into the profound abyss of your foolishness!

The Priest in De Cervantes, Miguel (2003.) Don Quixote. (Edith Grossman, Trans.). New York City, NY: Harper Collins (Original work published 1605, 1615) p.460