Thomas Szasz citáty

„The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.“

—  Thomas Szasz

"Personal Conduct" http://books.google.com/books?id=IYOcAQAAQBAJ&q=%22The+stupid+neither+forgive+nor+forget+the+na%C3%AFve+forgive+and+forget+the+wise+forgive+but+do+not+forget%22&pg=PA177#v=onepage, p. 51. http://openlibrary.org/works/OL15151528W/The_Second_Sin
The Second Sin (1973)

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

—  Thomas Szasz

Zdroj: The Second Sin (1973), P. 49.

„The proverb warns that, 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.“

—  Thomas Szasz

„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.“

—  Thomas Szasz

Zdroj: The Second Sin (1973), p. 49.

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

—  Thomas Szasz

Zdroj: The Second Sin (1973), p. 20.

„If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; If you talk to the dead, you are a schizophrenic.“

—  Thomas Szasz

"Schizophrenia", p. 101.
The Second Sin (1973)

„When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him..“

—  Thomas Szasz

„Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.“

—  Thomas Szasz

„Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.“

—  Thomas Szasz

"Emotions", p. 36.
The Second Sin (1973)

„Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.“

—  Thomas Szasz

"Science and Scientism", p. 115.
The Second Sin (1973)

„Punishment is now unfashionable… because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility.“

—  Thomas Szasz

„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.“

—  Thomas Szasz

„Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.“

—  Thomas Szasz

"Emotions", p. 36.
The Second Sin (1973)

„Classifying thoughts, feelings and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying whale as fish.“

—  Thomas Szasz

„It taught me, at an early age, that being wrong can be dangerous, but being right, when society regards the majority’s falsehood as truth, could be fatal.“

—  Thomas Szasz

Zdroj: The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct

„Religious and medical propaganda to the contrary notwithstanding, I hold some simple truths to be self-evident. One of these truths is that just as the dead do not rise from the grave, so drugs do not commit crimes. The dead remain dead. Drugs are inert chemicals that have no effect on human beings who choose not to use them. No one has to smoke cigarettes, and no one has to shoot heroin. People smoke cigarettes because they want to, and they shoot heroin because they want to.“

—  Thomas Szasz

"The Protocols of the Learned Experts on Heroin" http://www.scribd.com/doc/120817550/The-Protocols-Of-The-Learned-Experts-On-Heroin-by-Thomas-Szasz in The Libertarian Review, July 1981, p. 14.

„In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.“

—  Thomas Szasz

The Manufacture of Madness (1970) http://books.google.com/books?id=hpOcRRum3XEC&pg=PR24&q="In+the+past+men+created+witches+now+they+create+mental+patients".

„Why is self-control, autonomy, such a threat to authority? Because the person who controls himself, who is his own master, has no need for an authority to be his master. This, then, renders authority unemployed. What is he to do if he cannot control others? To be sure, he could mind his own business. But this is a fatuous answer, for those who are satisfied to mind their own business do not aspire to become authorities.“

—  Thomas Szasz

Revised edition, 1985. p. 175.
Ceremonial Chemistry (1974)

„The concept of disease is fast replacing the concept of responsibility. With increasing zeal Americans use and interpret the assertion "I am sick" as equivalent to the assertion "I am not responsible": Smokers say they are not responsible for smoking, drinkers that they are not responsible for drinking, gamblers that they are not responsible for gambling, and mothers who murder their infants that they are not responsible for killing. To prove their point — and to capitalize on their self-destructive and destructive behavior — smokers, drinkers, gamblers, and insanity acquitees are suing tobacco companies, liquor companies, gambling casinos, and physicians.
Can American society survive this legal-psychiatric assault on its moral and political foundations?“

—  Thomas Szasz

The Untamed Tongue: A Dissenting Dictionary (1990)