Top 20 Quotes by R. D. Laing

Schizophrenia cannot be understood without understanding despair.

We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.

Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or non-existence of Rules A, A1 or A2.

Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.

Whether life is worth living depends on whether there is love in life.

There is a great deal of pain in life and perhaps the only pain that can be avoided is the pain that comes from trying to avoid pain.

There is no such condition as 'schizophrenia', but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event.

Alienation as our present destiny is achieved only by outrageous violence perpetrated by human beings on human beings.

True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is.

Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death.