All that we are is a result of what we have thought.

Friday, 25 May 2012

I am a Sick Man. I am a Smart Man.

“Tell me this: why does it happen that at the very, yes, at the very moments when I am most capable of feeling every refinement of all that is "sublime and beautiful," as they used to say at one time, it would, as though of design, happen to me not only to feel but to do such ugly things, such that ... Well, in short, actions that all, perhaps, commit; but which, as though purposely, occurred to me at the very time when I was most conscious that they ought not to be committed. The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was "sublime and beautiful," the more deeply I sank into my mire and the more ready I was to sink in it altogether.”

I like this quote. It reminds me of two books I read exploring several faucets of neuroscience including the relationship between the creative and the conscious, and the psychological disorders often found in geniuses. It has always intrigued me how fine the line is between being considered a genius and being considered a lunatic. Are those deemed “crazy” really crazy, or is their madness merely the outward appearance of the “illness” of a very alert, very consciously-aware genius?

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