You wanted to get well.… Asked your greatest wish in life, you would have replied at once—sanity.… In the world outside, people longed desperately to be millionaires, movie actors, club presidents.… But nowhere, nowhere save the madhouse, did mental health get its share of prayers.

—Mary Jane Ward

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About Mary Jane Ward

Portrait of Mary Jane Ward

Mary Jane Ward (August 27, 1905 in Fairmount, Indiana—February 17, 1981, in Tucson, Arizona) was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical book The Snake Pit was made into an Oscar-winning film.

More quotations tagged with “sanity”

But you learn to smother the living breathing soul, go deaf to it, and this violence to the self is what is commonly called sanity in the places where I have lived.

—Philip Ó Ceallaigh

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Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

—William Dement

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There is a woe that is wisdom, a woe that is madness.

—Herman Melville

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Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid.

—Heinrich Heine

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Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.

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History

23 Nov 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

You wanted to get well. . . . Asked your greatest wish in life, you would have replied at once — sanity. . . . In the world outside, people longed desperately to be millionaires, movie actors, club presidents. . . . But nowhere, nowhere save the madhouse, did mental health get its share of prayers.