175 definitions
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Thomas Szasz: top 300 quotes
175 definitions
Suicide (n.) is the only literal escape from a life sentence.
Suicide (n.) is a choice. He who does not accept and respect the choice to reject life does not truly accept and respect life itself.
Suicide (n.) is a fundamental human right, which does not mean that is it morally desirable, only that society does not have the moral right to interfere, by force, with a person's decision to commit this act.
Suicide (n.) would be called ‘self-determined death’ if we valued medical self-responsibility more and dependence on medical authority less.
Suicide (n.) is more like a treatment than the disease we tend to take it as: it is the only effective remedy against what sometimes ails people - namely, the necessity to go on living.
Suicide (n.) is offensive not because one (allegedly) wants to die, which is one's inalienable right, but because he involves the public in what ought to be a private act; similar to that of the exhibitionist who, like every man, has an inalienable right to his penis, but not to exhibit it in public.
Mathematics (n.) is a language completely devoid of metaphor, which is why it is the perfect tool for conveying precise meaning - and perfectly useless for inspiring people.
Metaphor (n.) is a verbal cartoon. Hence, it must be grasped, not analyzed.
Metaphor (n.) is glossed as poetry in the realm of art, as witticism in the realm of humor, and as insanity in the realm of illness.
Metaphor (n.) is that which religion is largely comprised of, which is why religion is the perfect tool for legitimizing and illegitimizing ideas, behaviors, and persons.
Mysticism (n.) joins and unites while reason divides and separates, and people crave belonging more than understanding.
Disability (n.) is of two kinds: those who dwell on what they have lost and those who concentrate on what they have left.
Love (n.) is the desire to merge lives - yielding, at best, companionship while lust is the desire to merge bodies-yielding, at best, copulation.
Happiness (n.) is usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.
Happiness (n.) is an imaginary condition formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.
Religion (n.) is comprised largely of literalized metaphors, which is why it is the perfect tool for legitimizing and illegitimizing ideas, behaviors, and persons.
Writing (n.) is always betokening conceit - that one has something worthwhile to say.