“Well,” I answered “I remember how you used to talk to me about the possibility of human life in Mars and in some of the other planets or stars. Verily, when we think of such insane doings, it not unfrequently occurs to us that this world is in fact the lunatic asylum of the universe, and that we, and the other reasonable men who are with us, are merely here as the keepers thereof.Ī 1917 a writer in the London journal “The Nation” described a conversation during which the saying was employed: 1917 November 24, The Nation, Volume 22, Number 8, Section: Life and Letters, War Aims: 1920, Start, Quote, Column 2, London, England. In 1848 an article in “The Scottish Temperance Review” employed an instance of the cosmic analogy: 1848 February, The Scottish Temperance Review, The Temperance Hero Gallery, James Stirling-The Oldest of the Scottish Fathers, Start, Quote, Printed by Samuel Dunn and Thomas Dunn, … Continue reading “I am afraid,” said Memnon, “that our little terraqueous globe here is the mad-house of those hundred thousand millions of worlds, of which your Lordship does me the honour to speak.”īelow are additional selected citations in chronological order. Here is an English translation from 1807: 1807, Classic Tales: Serious and Lively, Volume 2, Voltaire, Story: Memnon the Philosopher or Human Wisdom, Start, Quote and 189, Printed and Published by and for John Hunt & … Continue reading The main character Memnon mentions Earth’s place in the universe. Voltaire wrote a story “Memnon ou La Sagesse Humaine” (“Memnon or Human Wisdom”) in the late 1740s and published it by 1749. Where Reason, undiseas’d with you, runs mad, Emphasis added to excerpts by QI: 1747 May, The Scots Magazine, Volume 9, Section: Poetical Essays, The Complaint, Night 9 and Last: The Consolation, (by Edward Young), Continuation of Complaint, Night 9, Start, Quote Page … Continue reading The expression appeared in “Night Nine” which was serialized in “The Scots Magazine” in 1747. The poem was called “The Complaint, Or, Night-thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality”, and it was split into a sequence of numbered “Nights”. Quote Investigator: This is a complex topic hence, QI will split the response into three articles an article centered on Voltaire’s quotation is available here an article centered on George Bernard Shaw’s quotation is available here the overview article is presented below.Ī thematic match occurred in a lengthy work by the English poet Edward Young. Would you please explore the provenance of this expression? This notion has been credited to Mark Twain, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, George Bernard Shaw and others. The other planets use Earth as an insane asylum.
This world is the lunatic asylum for other planets.Mark Twain? Thomas Jefferson? Voltaire? Edward Young? George Bernard Shaw? Laird MacKenzie? Elsie McCormick? Bertrand Russell? Kurt Vonnegut? Apocryphal? Anonymous?ĭear Quote Investigator: Several thinkers have offered an anguished explanation for the dangerously disordered state of the world.