what's crazy

Some of the very names we call upon in the name of genius and trailblazing are those of people once viewed as crazy. In one day, I might hear a couple of people call other folks "crazy," and it can mean various things: funny, intense, outgoing, hardworking, risky or truly insane. It's a term we use rather lightly.

Let's take a look at what some of the great minds in history and of our time (some of whom were called crazy, or worse!) had to say on the topic. (*YES, this was inspired by all the Charlie Sheen hoopla. How does one watch virtually no TV, spend less than an hour online, and listen to no talk radio, and still know about the mental breakdown this random person might be having?)

*"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

*"It's crazy, right? To love someone who's hurt you? It's crazier to think that someone who hurts you loves you." -- Jodi Picoult

*"We have psychologized like the insane, who make their insanity greater by striving to understand it." -- Charles Baudelaire

*"Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence." -- Edgar Allan Poe

*"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -- Albert Einstein

Let's also look at a few quotes from some of those very influential minds that, you might agree, sound kinda crazy... or brilliant!

*"To destroy is always the first step in any creation." -- E. E. Cummings

*"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." -- Edgar Allan Poe

*"Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?" -- Jane Austen

*"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice." -- Albert Einstein

*"I think that people at the high end, people like myself, should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it." -- Warren Buffett

*"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -- Edgar Allan Poe

*"It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so." -- William Shakespeare

I'm not saying Sheen is or isn't crazy. Neither am I saying that in my opinion he should be cast among the aforementioned greats (he shouldn't!). But, is narcissism insanity? Is fantasy? Because at the very least, he seems consumed by these. Charlie Sheen aside, may I simply suggest, keep an open mind...

*"Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtaxed." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

*"The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success." -- Bruce Feirstein

*"Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one." -- George Orwell