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Quote#Speech

Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence;…

Quote byAmbrose Bierce · 1842–1914

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

English (original)

Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech, and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that they themselves are sane.

— Ambrose Bierce

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