1.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius
If you are disturbed by any external factor, the agony is not caused by the object itself but to your perception of it; and this you can renounce at any instant.
2.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
The aim of life is not to be part of the mainstream, but to avoid joining the ranks of lunacy.
3.
Every time there are losses, there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper.
Henri Nouwen
4.
A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.
Phyllis McGinley
A pastime a day keeps the tedium at bay.
5.
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Mania in persons is a rarity - but amongst collectives, assemblies, countries and periods of time, it is the norm.
6.
Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.
William Faulkner
I would opt for suffering over oblivion.
7.
You create your own decoration. You choose your color, you choose your mood. ... If you are depressed, you put some bright yellow and suddenly you are happy.
Philippe Starck
'You craft your own atmosphere. You select your hue, you pick your sentiment. ... If you are despondent, you incorporate some vibrant yellow and instantly you are content.'
8.
Frustration, discouragement, and depression mean you are working against yourself.
Jaggi Vasudev
Discouragement, despondency, and dejection signify you are sabotaging yourself.
9.
A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.
Joyce Meyer
A buoyant outlook grants you control over your situation instead of your situation controlling you.
10.
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
'One must still possess inner turmoil to be able to bring forth a dancing star.'
11.
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.
Edgar Allan Poe
12.
Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction? It is already happening to some extent in our own society... Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed, modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect, antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.
Theodore Kaczynski
13.
I’m here. I love you. I don’t care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you... There’s nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.
Elizabeth Gilbert
14.
Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.
Joyce Meyer
Beware of the pleasure-robbers: rumor-mongering, condemnation, carping, nitpicking, and a pessimistic, censorious attitude.
15.
Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly.
Richard Bach
'Discard what your sight is showing you. It can only give a restricted view. Utilize your insight, call to mind the facts you are aware of, and then you will discover the route to soar.'
16.
I can mingle with the stars and throw a party on Mars
I am a prisoner, locked up behind Xanax bars
Lil Wayne
I can rub elbows with the luminaries and host a soiree on the Red Planet; yet I am confined, incarcerated within tranquillizer confines.
17.
There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.
Laurell K. Hamilton
There are injuries that remain invisible yet more painful than any physical trauma.
18.
Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.
Joko Beck
19.
True art is alive and inspired by humanity. I believe that art helps us to be free from aggression and depression.
Leonid Afremov
True art is vibrant and fueled by people. I believe that it can provide us with liberation from hostility and gloom.
20.
I don't think I was awake for much of my childhood. I did a lot of napping. This might have been a defensive measure against encroaching depression. Until about the age of eleven or twelve, I had zero interests other than trying to steal gumballs from supermarket gumball machines.
Michael Ian Black
21.
Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Oliver Sacks
23.
No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
24.
You know what scares me? When you have to be nice to some paranoid schizophrenic, just because she lives in your head.
Steven Wright
25.
Bipolar disorder can be a great teacher. It's a challenge, but it can set you up to be able to do almost anything else in your life.
Carrie Fisher
26.
There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
Oscar Levant
27.
If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.
Fred Rogers
28.
Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer.
Dorothy Rowe
29.
Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.
John Harvey-Jones
30.
Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.
Marcel Proust
31.
Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.
Pope John Paul II
32.
Our generation has had no Great Depression, no Great War. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.
Chuck Palahniuk
33.
Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves.
Herbert Hoover
34.
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.
Robin Williams
35.
Depression isn't just being a bit sad. It's feeling nothing. It's not wanting to be alive anymore.
J. K. Rowling
36.
A lot of people don't realize that depression is an illness. I don't wish it on anyone, but if they would know how it feels, I swear they would think twice before they just shrug it.
Jonathan Davis
37.
If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
Thomas Szasz
38.
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours.
Ronald Reagan
39.
I was terrified when my doctor told me that I had a unique and interesting personality trait, but then he told me about new Zoloft or Prozac and now I just take three pills a day and I blend right into this horrible inbred corporate landscape.
Doug Stanhope
40.
Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.
Carl Jung
41.
Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.
R. D. Laing
42.
It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement. Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs, therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity or undue depression in adversity.
Isocrates
44.
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
45.
Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.
Robert Green Ingersoll
46.
My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle.
Patty Duke
48.
I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.
Ned Vizzini
49.
Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.
C. S. Lewis
50.
I don't want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing over me like a sluggish wave. Whatever is happening to me is my own fault. I have done something wrong, something so huge I can't even see it, something that's drowning me. I am inadequate and stupid, without worth. I might as well be dead.
Margaret Atwood