--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: To be sane, he held, was either to be…" description: "\"To be sane, he held, was either to be sedated by melancholy or activated by hysteria, two responses which were 'always and equally warranted for those ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf3/thomas-ligotti-2073_bliss_to-be-sane-he-held-was-either-to-be-seda_322612.jpg" --- # To be sane, he held, was either to be sedated by… ![“To be sane, he held, was either to be sedated by melancholy or activated by hysteria, two responses which were 'always and equally warranted for those of sound insight'. All others were irrational, merely symptoms of imaginations left idle, of memories out of work. And above these mundane…” quote by Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf3/thomas-ligotti-2073_bliss_to-be-sane-he-held-was-either-to-be-seda_322612.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf3/thomas-ligotti-2073_bliss_to-be-sane-he-held-was-either-to-be-seda_322612.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf3/thomas-ligotti-2073_bliss_to-be-sane-he-held-was-either-to-be-seda_322612.jpg) > “To be sane, he held, was either to be sedated by melancholy or activated by hysteria, two responses which were 'always and equally warranted for those of sound insight'. All others were irrational, merely symptoms of imaginations left idle, of memories out of work. And above these mundane responses, the only elevation allowable, the only valid transcendence, was a sardonic one: a bliss that annihilated the universe with jeers of dark joy, a mindful ecstasy. Anything else in the way of 'mysticism' was a sign of deviation or distraction, and a heresy to the obvious. (“The Medusa”)” [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote suggests that rational insight leads to either melancholy or hysteria, while true transcendence is a sardonic, dark joy that mocks existence; other mystical pursuits are seen as distractions or heresies. **In simple terms:** Insight brings melancholy or hysteria; true transcendence is dark, sardonic joy. Key Takeaway Embrace dark humor as a path to insight. Themes philosophy existentialism dark humor transcendence Mood thoughtful dark ironic Type philosophical literary reflective When to use this quote - creative writing - philosophical debate - personal reflection - mental health coping Key Concepts nihilism psychoanalysis absurdism Questions to Reflect On - Do you find humor helps you confront existential dread? - Can melancholy be a productive force? A Different Perspective It may romanticize suffering and ignore constructive coping strategies. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bliss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bliss/) [Dark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dark/) [Distraction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/distraction/) [Ecstasy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ecstasy/) [Heresy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/heresy/) [Hysteria](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hysteria/) [Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination/) [Irrational](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irrational/) [Joy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/joy/) [Medusa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/medusa/) [Melancholy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/melancholy/) [Memories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memories/) [Mysticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mysticism/) [Sardonic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sardonic/) [Sound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sound/) [Transcendence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/transcendence/) [Universe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/universe/) [Wisdom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wisdom/) ## Related quotes > [The sinister, the terrible never deceive: the state in which they leave us is always one of enlightenment. And only this condition of vicious…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-sinister-the-terrible-never-deceive-the-state-in-which-they-leave/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“personal well-being serves solely to excavate within your soul a chasm which waits to be filled by a landslide of dread, an empty mold…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/personal-well-being-serves-solely-to-excavate-within-your-soul-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“Thus, you see, he arrived at the same end, via supposed duty, that he was previously pledged to via interest. I fancy a good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-gaskell/thus-you-see-he-arrived-at-the-same-end-via-supposed-duty-that-he-was/) [Elizabeth Gaskell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-gaskell/) > [The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-herbert/the-person-who-experiences-greatness-must-have-a-feeling-for-the-myth/) [Frank Herbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-herbert/) > [“His mouth has a story to tell, I’m certain of it. How can it be amused and sardonic, hard and inviting, all at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/primula-bond/his-mouth-has-a-story-to-tell-i-m-certain-of-it-how-can-it-be-amused/) [Primula Bond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/primula-bond/) > [I just play to progressive audiences. You know, if they're watching Discovery Channel, History Channel, that kind of thing, "Monty Python" have already laid…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eddie-izzard/i-just-play-to-progressive-audiences-you-know-if-they-re-watching/) [Eddie Izzard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eddie-izzard/) > [Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-herbert/greatness-is-a-transitory-experience-it-is-never-consistent-it/) [Frank Herbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-herbert/) > [“I watched him, sardonic, cynical. A great poet, truly, yet unkind. The gifts of our nature seem not to modify the manner of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeanette-winterson/i-watched-him-sardonic-cynical-a-great-poet-truly-yet-unkind-the/) [Jeanette Winterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeanette-winterson/) > [Nazi Literature in the Americas, a wicked invented encyclopedia of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers, is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives. As…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacey-d-erasmo/nazi-literature-in-the-americas-a-wicked-invented-encyclopedia-of/) Stacey D'Erasmo > [If I have any claim to originality, I do it by investing my own personality into it, so it's coming from a slightly more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-hunter/if-i-have-any-claim-to-originality-i-do-it-by-investing-my-own/) [James Hunter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-hunter/) > [“Your laugh is of the sardonic kind.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caius-sempronius-gracchus/your-laugh-is-of-the-sardonic-kind/) Caius Sempronius Gracchus > [“Don't worry about it. If I'm wrong, Security is monitoring me every second." "That just means they'll know who to charge with your murder,"…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-resnick/don-t-worry-about-it-if-i-m-wrong-security-is-monitoring-me-every/) [Mike Resnick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mike-resnick/) > [Freud, Jung thought, had been a great discoverer of facts about the mind, but far too inclined to leave the solid ground of "critical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-gay/freud-jung-thought-had-been-a-great-discoverer-of-facts-about-the/) [Peter Gay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-gay/) > [I see contemporary violence as a kind of sardonic response to the promise of consumer fulfilment in America.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/i-see-contemporary-violence-as-a-kind-of-sardonic-response-to-the/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [God was feeling sardonic the day He created the Universe. So it's rather up to at least one man every few centuries to pop…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/l-ron-hubbard/god-was-feeling-sardonic-the-day-he-created-the-universe-so-it-s/) [L. Ron Hubbard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/l-ron-hubbard/) ## More by Thomas Ligotti > [“Subsequently there ensues an epoch of complex, proliferating intrigues and conspiracies among the ranks of double agents, whose agendas become so densely intertwined that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/subsequently-there-ensues-an-epoch-of-complex-proliferating-intrigues/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The point that in the absence of birth nobody exists who can be deprived of happiness is terribly conspicuous. For optimists, this fact plays…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-point-that-in-the-absence-of-birth-nobody-exists-who-can-be/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The worst fear of the race yes, the world suddenly transformed into a senseless nightmare, horrible dissolution of things. Nothing compares, even oblivion is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-worst-fear-of-the-race-yes-the-world-suddenly-transformed-into-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“In supernatural horror stories, however, magical thinking is a completely different matter. Those characters contending with what seems to be the work of magic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/in-supernatural-horror-stories-however-magical-thinking-is-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“When you are alone in the wilderness, opinions or beliefs of any kind are dropped as the absurd accoutrements they are. But after being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/when-you-are-alone-in-the-wilderness-opinions-or-beliefs-of-any-kind/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/there-seems-to-be-an-inborn-drive-in-all-human-beings-not-to-live-in/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [Nature proceeds by blunders; that is its way. It is also ours. So if we have blundered by regarding consciousness as a blunder, why…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/nature-proceeds-by-blunders-that-is-its-way-it-is-also-ours-so-if-we/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [We live in a permanent state of bad faith, a mutual representation of ourselves to one another for the sake of remaining sane and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/we-live-in-a-permanent-state-of-bad-faith-a-mutual-representation-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The darkness of the grotesque is an immortal enigma: in all legends of the dead, in all the tales of creatures of the night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-darkness-of-the-grotesque-is-an-immortal-enigma-in-all-legends-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“If truth is what you seek, then the examined life will only take you on a long ride to the limits of solitude and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/if-truth-is-what-you-seek-then-the-examined-life-will-only-take-you/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The dismembered limbs of dolls and puppets are strewn about everywhere. Posters, signs, billboards, and leaflets of various sorts are scattered around like playing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-dismembered-limbs-of-dolls-and-puppets-are-strewn-about/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“As I drifted along with my bodiless invisibility, I felt myself more and more becoming an empty, floating shape, seeing without being seen and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/as-i-drifted-along-with-my-bodiless-invisibility-i-felt-myself-more/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The lessons in measurement of cloacal forces. Time as a flow of sewage. The excrement of space, scatology of creation. The voiding of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-lessons-in-measurement-of-cloacal-forces-time-as-a-flow-of-sewage/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [And the worst possible thing we could know — worse than knowing of our descent from a mass of microorganisms — is that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/and-the-worst-possible-thing-we-could-know-worse-than-knowing-of-our/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“Only catatonics and coma patients can persevere in a dignified withdrawal from life’s rattle and hum. Without a “yes” in our hearts, nothing would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/only-catatonics-and-coma-patients-can-persevere-in-a-dignified/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Explore all 187 Thomas Ligotti quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## More Bliss quotes > [Ignorance is not bliss — it is oblivion. Determined ignorance is the hastiest kind of oblivion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-wylie/ignorance-is-not-bliss-it-is-oblivion-determined-ignorance-is-the/) [Philip Wylie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-wylie/) > [The artist's experience lies so unbelievably close to the sexual, to its pain and its pleasure, that the two phenomena are really just different…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-artist-s-experience-lies-so-unbelievably-close-to-the-sexual-to/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [and Venus among the fishes skips and is a she-dolphin she is the gay, delighted porpoise sporting with love and the sea she is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/d-h-lawrence/and-venus-among-the-fishes-skips-and-is-a-she-dolphin-she-is-the-gay/) [D. H. Lawrence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/d-h-lawrence/) > [Music is a lot more like solving an intricate puzzle with moments of pure, random creative bliss... whereas painting is much more purely random…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brandon-boyd/music-is-a-lot-more-like-solving-an-intricate-puzzle-with-moments-of/) [Brandon Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brandon-boyd/) > [Work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-f-schumacher/work-and-leisure-are-complementary-parts-of-the-same-living-process/) [E. F. Schumacher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-f-schumacher/) > [“Being around her now was nine parts bliss and one part torment. And he wanted it to last as long as possible.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/molly-ringle/being-around-her-now-was-nine-parts-bliss-and-one-part-torment-and-he/) [Molly Ringle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/molly-ringle/) > [“He was still a mystery to me. And God, did I want to play Nancy Drew.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cora-carmack/he-was-still-a-mystery-to-me-and-god-did-i-want-to-play-nancy-drew/) [Cora Carmack](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cora-carmack/) > [Eating, drinking, sleeping a little laughter ! much weeping! Is that all ? Do not die here like a worm. Wake up! Attain immortal bliss!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sivananda/eating-drinking-sleeping-a-little-laughter-much-weeping-is-that-all/) [Sivananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sivananda/) > [How do you find the divine power in yourself? The word enthusiasm means 'filled with a god,' so what makes you enthusiastic? Follow it.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/how-do-you-find-the-divine-power-in-yourself-the-word-enthusiasm/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [When you follow your bliss a kind of track opens up, that's always been there, waiting for you. And the life that you should…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/when-you-follow-your-bliss-a-kind-of-track-opens-up-that-s-always/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [When you drop your unnecessary things, you finally can swoop and fly in vast space. It is so blue, so bright, and so nice,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chogyam-trungpa/when-you-drop-your-unnecessary-things-you-finally-can-swoop-and-fly/) [Chogyam Trungpa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chogyam-trungpa/) > [“Everything we perceive to be solid and static is made up of almost entirely empty space.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-p-kauffman/everything-we-perceive-to-be-solid-and-static-is-made-up-of-almost/) [Joseph P. Kauffman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-p-kauffman/) > [“The smell of her hair lingered just out of reach of his memory and left him with a nervous hum resonating throughout his body…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erik-tomblin/the-smell-of-her-hair-lingered-just-out-of-reach-of-his-memory-and/) [Erik Tomblin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erik-tomblin/) > [“They happen only when you are distant,aloof. They happen, they cannot be brought. They happen you cannot force them to happen. They are spontaneous…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/osho/they-happen-only-when-you-are-distant-aloof-they-happen-they-cannot/) [Osho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/osho/) > [“Ignorance was bliss. Or at least less painfull”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kiersten-white/ignorance-was-bliss-or-at-least-less-painfull/) [Kiersten White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kiersten-white/) [Browse all 1,311 Bliss quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bliss/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "To be sane, he held, was either to be sedated by melancholy or activated by hysteria, two responses which were 'always and equally warranted for those of sound insight'. All others were irrational, merely symptoms of imaginations left idle, of memories out of work. 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