Create Yours

Top 20 Elyn R. Saks Quotes (2025 Update)

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illnesses we may not.”

1. “The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illnesses we may not.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “What I rather wish to say is that the humanity we all share is more important than the mental illness we may not. With proper treatment, someone who is mentally ill can lead a full and rich life. What makes life wonderful – good friends, a satisfying job, loving relationships – is just as valuable for those of us who struggle with schizophrenia as for anyone else.”

2. “What I rather wish to say is that the humanity we all share is more important than the mental illness we may not. With proper treatment, someone who is mentally ill can lead a full and rich life. What makes life wonderful – good friends, a satisfying job, loving relationships – is just as valuable for those of us who struggle with schizophrenia as for anyone else.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “A mental illness diagnosis does not automatically sentence you to a bleak and painful life, devoid of pleasure or joy or accomplishment. I also wanted to dispel the myths held by many mental-health professionals themselves – that people with a significant thought disorder cannot live independently, cannot work at challenging jobs, cannot have true friendships, cannot be in meaningful, sexually satisfying love relationships, cannot lead lives of intellectual, spiritual, or emotional richness.”

3. “A mental illness diagnosis does not automatically sentence you to a bleak and painful life, devoid of pleasure or joy or accomplishment. I also wanted to dispel the myths held by many mental-health professionals themselves – that people with a significant thought disorder cannot live independently, cannot work at challenging jobs, cannot have true friendships, cannot be in meaningful, sexually satisfying love relationships, cannot lead lives of intellectual, spiritual, or emotional richness.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “If you are a person with mental illness, the challenge is to find the life that’s right for you. But in truth, isn’t that the challenge for all of us, mentally ill or not? My good fortune is not that I’ve recovered from mental illness. I have not, nor will I ever. My good fortune lies in having found my life.”

4. “If you are a person with mental illness, the challenge is to find the life that’s right for you. But in truth, isn’t that the challenge for all of us, mentally ill or not? My good fortune is not that I’ve recovered from mental illness. I have not, nor will I ever. My good fortune lies in having found my life.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Mental illness” is among the most stigmatized of categories.′ People are ashamed of being mentally ill. They fear disclosing their condition to their friends and confidants-and certainly to their employers.”

5. “Mental illness” is among the most stigmatized of categories.′ People are ashamed of being mentally ill. They fear disclosing their condition to their friends and confidants-and certainly to their employers.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Or try this: Place yourself in the middle of the room. Turn on the stereo, the television, and a beeping video game, and then invite into the room several small children with ice cream cones. Crank up the volume on each piece of electrical equipment, then take away the children’s ice cream. Imagine these circumstances existing every day and night of your life. What would you do?”

6. “Or try this: Place yourself in the middle of the room. Turn on the stereo, the television, and a beeping video game, and then invite into the room several small children with ice cream cones. Crank up the volume on each piece of electrical equipment, then take away the children’s ice cream. Imagine these circumstances existing every day and night of your life. What would you do?”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “I needed to put two critical ideas together: that I could both be mentally ill and lead a rich and satisfying life.”

7. “I needed to put two critical ideas together: that I could both be mentally ill and lead a rich and satisfying life.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “But explaining what I’ve come to call “disorganization” is a different challenge altogether. Consciousness gradually loses its coherence. One’s center gives way. The center cannot hold. The “me” becomes a haze, and the solid center from which one experiences reality breaks up like a bad radio signal.”

8. “But explaining what I’ve come to call “disorganization” is a different challenge altogether. Consciousness gradually loses its coherence. One’s center gives way. The center cannot hold. The “me” becomes a haze, and the solid center from which one experiences reality breaks up like a bad radio signal.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Nothing I can do. There will be raging fires, and hundreds, maybe thousands of people lying dead in the streets. And it will all – all of it – be my fault.”

9. “Nothing I can do. There will be raging fires, and hundreds, maybe thousands of people lying dead in the streets. And it will all – all of it – be my fault.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “There are forces of nature and circumstance that are beyond our control, let alone our understanding, and to insist on victory in the face of this, to accept nothing less, is just asking for a soul-pummeling. The simple truth is, not every fight can be won.”

10. “There are forces of nature and circumstance that are beyond our control, let alone our understanding, and to insist on victory in the face of this, to accept nothing less, is just asking for a soul-pummeling. The simple truth is, not every fight can be won.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “All my life, books had been the life raft, the safe haven, the place I ran to when nothing else worked.”

11. “All my life, books had been the life raft, the safe haven, the place I ran to when nothing else worked.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “That was when I learned that for all my good intentions, I could be simultaneously on the receiving and giving end of the stigma that goes along with mental illness.”

12. “That was when I learned that for all my good intentions, I could be simultaneously on the receiving and giving end of the stigma that goes along with mental illness.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “How many times, I wondered, would I have to deal with the betrayal of this mass of nerves and blood vessels and muscle and skin?”

13. “How many times, I wondered, would I have to deal with the betrayal of this mass of nerves and blood vessels and muscle and skin?”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Don’t focus on it,” she said. “Don’t define yourself in terms of something which even many highly trained and gifted professionals do not fully understand.”

14. “Don’t focus on it,” she said. “Don’t define yourself in terms of something which even many highly trained and gifted professionals do not fully understand.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “I was afraid the staff would laugh at me – and as frightened as I was, the thought of derision frightened me even more. In retrospect, it was a life-threatening deception, somewhat along the lines of hiding recurrent chest pains from one’s cardiologist from embarrassment. Nearly.”

15. “I was afraid the staff would laugh at me – and as frightened as I was, the thought of derision frightened me even more. In retrospect, it was a life-threatening deception, somewhat along the lines of hiding recurrent chest pains from one’s cardiologist from embarrassment. Nearly.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “There’s a tremendous need to implode the myths of mental illness, to put a face on it, to show people that a diagnosis does not have to lead to a painful and oblique life... We who struggle with these disorders can lead full, happy, productive lives, if we have the right resources.”

16. “There’s a tremendous need to implode the myths of mental illness, to put a face on it, to show people that a diagnosis does not have to lead to a painful and oblique life... We who struggle with these disorders can lead full, happy, productive lives, if we have the right resources.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “The human brain comprises about 2 percent of a person’s body weight, but it consumes upward of 20 pcent of that body’s oxygen intake, and it controls 100 percent of that body’s actions.”

17. “The human brain comprises about 2 percent of a person’s body weight, but it consumes upward of 20 pcent of that body’s oxygen intake, and it controls 100 percent of that body’s actions.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Different bodies respond differently to different medication; finding the magic potion is pretty much hit-and-miss. This seems obvious, even simplistic, but it’s the only consistently true fact in treating mental illness.”

18. “Different bodies respond differently to different medication; finding the magic potion is pretty much hit-and-miss. This seems obvious, even simplistic, but it’s the only consistently true fact in treating mental illness.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “The simple truth is, not every fight can be won.”

19. “The simple truth is, not every fight can be won.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Ironically, the more I accepted I had a mental illness, the less the illness defined me – at which point the riptide set me free.”

20. “Ironically, the more I accepted I had a mental illness, the less the illness defined me – at which point the riptide set me free.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Taking off your clothes can feel like taking off armor; revealing vulnerability feels dangerous. And even the sanest person has to admit that the physical experience of orgasm is disorienting, even somewhat hallucinogenic – for me, that letting-go, falling-through-space feeling hadn’t always been good. When space looks suspiciously like an abyss, and “losing yourself” can equal psychosis, ceding control can be terrifying.”

21. “Taking off your clothes can feel like taking off armor; revealing vulnerability feels dangerous. And even the sanest person has to admit that the physical experience of orgasm is disorienting, even somewhat hallucinogenic – for me, that letting-go, falling-through-space feeling hadn’t always been good. When space looks suspiciously like an abyss, and “losing yourself” can equal psychosis, ceding control can be terrifying.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “Immediately, every sight, every sound, every smell coming at you carries equal weight; every thought, feeling, memory, and idea presents itself to you with an equally strong and demanding intensity.”

22. “Immediately, every sight, every sound, every smell coming at you carries equal weight; every thought, feeling, memory, and idea presents itself to you with an equally strong and demanding intensity.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Elyn R. Saks Quote: “You might also strive to make your life as predictable and orderly as possible – to literally control the various ingredients that make up your life – so that you knew ahead of time what was expected of you, what was going to happen, and how to prepare for it. Your basic goal would be to eliminate surprises. Slowly, painstakingly, you would rebuild your own internal regulator, with structure and predictability. What you lose in the way of spontaneity, you gain by way of sanity.”

23. “You might also strive to make your life as predictable and orderly as possible – to literally control the various ingredients that make up your life – so that you knew ahead of time what was expected of you, what was going to happen, and how to prepare for it. Your basic goal would be to eliminate surprises. Slowly, painstakingly, you would rebuild your own internal regulator, with structure and predictability. What you lose in the way of spontaneity, you gain by way of sanity.”

— Elyn R. Saks

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 20 Elyn R. Saks Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.