Anthony Storr Quotes

Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms.

One man's faith is another man's delusion

When a man suffers from delusions he is described as mad but when a million do so they belong to a world religion

I get intrigued by a puzzle, and writing a book is the best way to solve it.

The human spirit is not indestructible; but a courageous few discover that, when in hell, they are granted a glimpse of heaven.

Imagination flourishes best in solitude.

The sane are madder than we think, the mad saner.

Since I was not able wholly to subscribe to any one set of beliefs advanced by any 'guru' I had to fall back on my own, however derivative.

It is a tragic paradox that the very qualities that have led to man's extraordinary capacity for success are also those most likely to destroy him.

I want to show that the dividing lines between sanity and mental illness have been drawn in the wrong place.

It's not psychopathology that counts. It's what you do with it.

It is only when we no longer compulsively need someone that we can have a real relationship with them.

Inspiration cannot be willed, though it can be wooed.

Some split between the inner world and outer world is common to all behaviour, and the need to bridge the gap is the source of creative behaviour.

All the world loves a lover, and a lover loves all the world.

With the exception of certain rodents, no other vertebrate except Homo sapiens habitually destroys members of his own species.

So-called "inspiration" is no more than an extreme example of a process which constantly goes on in the minds of all of us.