Thomas Stephen Szasz Quotes

Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse.

1252

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

1742

In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults.

2048

Parents teach children discipline for two different, indeed diametrically opposed, reasons: to render the child submissive to them and to make him independent of them. Only a self-disciplined person can be obedient; and only such a person can be autonomous.

3616

Psychiatrists look for twisted molecules and defective genes as the causes of schizophrenia, because schizophrenia is the name of a disease. If Christianity or Communism were called diseases, would they then look for the chemical and genetic “causes” of these “conditions”?

4687

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.

4147

In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.

4350

Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.

4437