“Drugs are inert chemicals that have no effect on human beings who choose not to use them.”

— Thomas Szasz, "The Protocols of the Learned Experts on Heroin," The Libertarian Review (July 1981)

About Thomas Szasz

1920 – 2012

Hungarian-American psychiatrist and author of "The Myth of Mental Illness".

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

“Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.”

“Anxiety is the unwillingness to play even when you know the odds are for you.”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”