"I had a quick grasp of the secret to sanity, it had become the ability to hold the maximum of impossible combinations in one's mind"
- Norman Mailer
About this Quote
This quote by Norman Mailer talks to the idea that the key to keeping one's peace of mind is the ability to hold multiple, relatively inconsistent ideas in one's mind at the same time. This could be interpreted as a metaphor for the intricacy of life, and the need to accept that life is typically unpredictable and filled with paradoxes. It might likewise be seen as a call to welcome the concept of cognitive dissonance, and to be comfy with the concept that life is often loaded with contradictions. Eventually, Mailer's quote suggests that the secret to sanity is the capability to accept the complexity of life and to be able to hold multiple ideas in one's mind at the same time. This might be viewed as a call to be open-minded and to be happy to accept the fact that life is often unforeseeable and full of paradoxes.
This quote is written / told by Norman Mailer between January 31, 1923 and November 10, 2007. He/she was a famous Novelist from USA.
The author also have 37 other quotes.
"What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things... it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface"
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair"