Thomas Szasz Quotes - Page 2

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Autonomy... is freedom to develop one's self - to increase one's knowledge, improve one's skills, and achieve responsibility for one's conduct. And it is freedom to lead one's own life, to choose among alternative courses of action so long as no injury to others results.

Thomas Szasz

Responsibility, Self, Skills

Thomas Szasz (1988). “The Ethics of Psychoanalysis: The Theory and Method of Autonomous Psychotherapy”, p.22, Syracuse University Press

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The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, monomedicine. The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity.

Thomas Szasz

Religious, Men, Roots

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Mysticism joins and unites; reason divides and separates. People crave belonging more than understanding. Hence the prominent role of mysticism, and the limited role of reason in human affairs.

Thomas Szasz

People, Understanding, Roles

Thomas Stephen Szasz (1990). “The Untamed Tongue: A Dissenting Dictionary”, Open Court Publishing Company

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Why do children want to grow up? Because they experience their lives as constrained by immaturity and perceive adulthood as a condition of greater freedom and opportunity. But what is there today, in America, that very poor and very rich adolescents want to do but cannot do? Not much: they can do drugs, have sex, make babies, and get money (from their parents, crime, or the State). For such adolescents, adulthood becomes synonymous with responsibility rather than liberty. Is it any surprise that they remain adolescents?

Thomas Szasz

Inspirational, Baby, Sex

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'Statistics' show that 66% of clients are cured with psychotherapy; what statistics don't show is that 72% are cured without it.

Thomas Szasz

Investing, Statistics, Clients

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Delusion: belief said to be false by someone who does not share it.

Thomas Szasz

Believe, Doe, Belief

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Science can give us power over nature, but it cannot give us power over human nature.

Thomas Szasz

Giving, Human Nature, Humans

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We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility

Thomas Szasz

Meaningful, Responsibility, Guilt

Thomas Stephen Szasz (2004). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.79, Transaction Publishers

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When a man says that he is Jesus or Napoleon, or that the Martians are after him, or claims something else that seems outrageous to common sense, he is labeled psychotic and locked up in a madhouse. Freedom of speech is only for normal people.

Thomas Szasz

Jesus, Men, People

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Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condense and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.

Thomas Szasz

Addiction, Political, Anorexia

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What people really need and demand from life is not wealth, comfort, or esteem, but games worth playing

Thomas Szasz

Games, People, Comfort

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

Thomas Szasz

Laughter, Drinking, Laughing

Thomas Szasz (2017). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.260, Routledge

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In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults.

Thomas Szasz

Children, Parent, Today

Thomas Stephen Szasz (1990). “The Untamed Tongue: A Dissenting Dictionary”, Open Court Publishing Company

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It is easier to do one's duty to others than to one's self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. If you do your duty to yourself, you are considered selfish.

Thomas Szasz

Selfish, Easier, Duty

Thomas Stephen Szasz (1973). “The second sin”, Anchor

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Marriages are said to be made in Heaven, which may be why they don't work here on Earth.

Thomas Szasz

Marriage, Heaven, Earth

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The wise treat self-respect as non-negotiable, and will not trade it for health or wealth or anything else.

Thomas Szasz

Wise, Self, Wealth

Thomas Stephen Szasz (1973). “The second sin”, Anchor

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Psychiatry does not commit human rights abuse. It is a human rights abuse.

Thomas Szasz

Rights, Abuse, Doe

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If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.

Thomas Szasz

Order, Law, Punishment

Thomas Stephen Szasz (2002). “The Meaning of Mind: Language, Morality, and Neuroscience”, p.36, Syracuse University Press

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In the 60s people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.

Thomas Szasz

Animal, People, World

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Men love liberty because it protects them from control and humiliation by others, thus affording them the possibility of dignity; they loathe liberty because it throws them back on their own abilities and resources, thus confronting them with the possibility of insignificance.

Thomas Szasz

Men, Liberty, Libertarian

Thomas Szasz (2017). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.109, Routledge

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Masturbation: the primary sexual activity of mankind. In the nineteenth century it was a disease; in the twentieth, it's a cure.

Thomas Szasz

Sex, Disease, Masturbation

The Second Sin (1973) "Sex"

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Only idiots and infants need things. The language of needs is the native tongue of socialists, therapists, and paternalists of all sorts and is addressed to needy dependents. The language of wants is spoken by self-respecting adults and is addressed to other self-respecting adults.

Thomas Szasz

Self, Tongue, Adults

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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

Strong, Mistake, Men

The Second Sin "Science and Scientism" (1973)

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I favor free trade in drugs for the same reason the Founding Fathers favored free trade in ideas: in a free society it is none of the government's business what ideas a man puts into his mind; likewise, it should be none of its business what drugs he puts into his body.

Thomas Szasz

Father, Men, Ideas

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Marx said that religion was the opiate of the people. In the United States today, opiates are the religion of the people.

Thomas Szasz

People, United States, Opiates

"The Second Sin (Drugs)". Book by Thomas Szasz, 1973.

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Born: April 15, 1920
Died: September 8, 2012
Occupation: Psychiatrist
Cite this Page: Citation

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