In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.

Superstition and hallucination are really one thing, and fanaticism, which is mental obsession, easily becomes acute and the whirling dervish runs amuck at sight of a man whose religious opinions are different from his own.

It was funny how obsessed people believed others equally obsessed, or even interested.

A phenomenon that might seem only backwards or silly when expressed at a social level becomes madness at the individual level.

Crowds create illusions.

Be more than motivated, be more than driven, become literally obsessed to the point where people think you're fucking nuts.

We're all mad, the whole damned race. We're wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we're all mad and in solitary confinement.

Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation. Failing in these, it has some madness, to which it is goaded by political of religious causes, or both combined.

when we start to deeply believe in an illusion, it becomes a delusion.

We are surrounded with people who think that what we have been doing for that one-fortieth of a second can go on indefinitely. They are considered normal, but they are stark, raving mad.

Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.

When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.

When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.

In any human endeavor, some fraction of its practitioners will be motivated to pursue that activity with such concentrated focus and unalloyed passion that it will consume them utterly.