"It is said that madmen and fools are the children of God and yet we seek to confine these children to the outer reaches of society, shut away and ignored. Is it possible that what we dismiss as their mad ravings may, in fact, be... the wisdom of prophets?"
— The Control Voice, The Outer Limits (1995), "Beyond The Veil"
"I have stood knee deep in mud and bone, and filled my lungs with mustard gas. I have seen two brothers fall. I have lain with holy wars and copulated with the autumnal fallout. I have dug trenches for the refugees; I have murdered dissidents where the ground never thaws, and starved the masses into faith. A child's shadow burnt into the brickwork. A house of skulls in the jungle. The innocent, the innocent, Mandus, trod and bled and gassed and starved and beaten and murdered and enslaved. This is your coming century! They will eat them Mandus, they will make pigs of you all and they will bury their snouts into your ribs and they will eat. Your. Hearts!"
"Two protons expelled at each coupling site creates the mode of force. The embryo becomes a fish, though we don't enter until A-plate. We're here to experience, evolve the little toe. Atrophy. Don't ask me how, I'll be dead in a thousand light-years. Thank you, thank you. Genesis turns to its source, reduction occurs stepwise though the essence is all one, end of line. All functions within parameters repeats the harlequin..."
— The Hybrid, Battlestar Galactica (2003)
"I've realized that you probably don't know how this all ends yet. I'm sorry about that. I forget these things. Ever since the tower fell, I have been at all places between two points. I forget that it's all linear to most people. Effects follow causes and causes precede effects. And I still live all those moments.
I'm sorry, I was rambling. The Freakshow in the cult are going to try to kill you now, but since you don't yet know where to go to take the fight to them, they have the advantage. However, we can edit out all of the tedious searching for hideouts and interrogation. I will tell you where to go. There, you will find out about the cult that's overtaken the Freakshow on the island. It will bring you a step closer to escaping the horror at the end.
They call themselves the cult of...
Oh, I'm sorry. Causes, then effects."
I'm sorry, I was rambling. The Freakshow in the cult are going to try to kill you now, but since you don't yet know where to go to take the fight to them, they have the advantage. However, we can edit out all of the tedious searching for hideouts and interrogation. I will tell you where to go. There, you will find out about the cult that's overtaken the Freakshow on the island. It will bring you a step closer to escaping the horror at the end.
They call themselves the cult of...
Oh, I'm sorry. Causes, then effects."
— Diviner Maros, City of Villains, possibly the patron saint of this trope
"HE IS COMING. THE THREE-FOLD MAN! HE DANCES IN THE LONELY PLACES! O CREATOR OF US ALL, THE DOCTOR IS COMING! NEHAHAHA!"
— Dalek Caan, Doctor Who
Bardock: Just because they're psychic doesn't mean they're smart.
Toma: But aren't psychics supposed to have unbelievable mental—
Toolo: I CAN SEE THE FUTUUUURE!
Pumbukin: Hey, look, one survived.
Toolo: Oh, no, they can see me! I have to stop you from destroying my race... in the future!
Bardock: We already did that.
Toolo: ...I knew you'd do that!
Toma: But aren't psychics supposed to have unbelievable mental—
Toolo: I CAN SEE THE FUTUUUURE!
Pumbukin: Hey, look, one survived.
Toolo: Oh, no, they can see me! I have to stop you from destroying my race... in the future!
Bardock: We already did that.
Toolo: ...I knew you'd do that!
"Yes. Alive now, dead later. That's life. You all fall down. Girl next, then boy. You'll see. I see."
— The Homeless Man, Final Destination: Dead Reckoning
Who struck Malkav with the gift of visions that burned? I have given so much and yet the answer, the true answer, continues to flutter out of reach. The memories of us all are tainted, washed with fever here. Whatever event slashed into Malkav's mind, leaving this great, terrible, livid wound, it so scarred him that he could never tell the same story to any two of his childer. The only times the stories agree are when a childe's story agrees with his sire's, or when a scholar quotes the Book of Nod — but even the Book of Nod might not be true. Surely if any other of Caine's grandchilder had been with Malkav when the Sight struck him, they would have been stricken as well. The power of the thing...
The power of the Sight is the power of the world itself. It is more than a disease that runs in the blood — it is a connection to the chaos that pools in invisible places. It is the vision to perceive the world's true angles.
The power of the Sight is the power of the world itself. It is more than a disease that runs in the blood — it is a connection to the chaos that pools in invisible places. It is the vision to perceive the world's true angles.
— Vampire: The Masquerade — Clanbook: Malkavian (Revised)
"The crimson ship... he's not who he says she is, and it's going to burn... dinosaurs? [...] he's furious... the man with the crest... the voice in the darkness, boss... Chinese brothers... follow the lights to the end of the tunnel... where do you want to go?"
— Rosa the Thin-Blood, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
"Oh shit. A Malkavian. I suppose I'll figure out what the hell you're talking about in a month or so. Man, I hate talking to you guys! I always feel like I'm getting an answer to a question I haven't even asked yet."
— Bertram Tung, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
"The Legion Astartes stand tallest of all men or gods — part machine, part flesh and possessed by a feral desire to smite their foes to dust. But Chaos corrupts all and many turned to face to dark with open hearts and let it embrace them what is this I write I do not understand all that I write I do not understand all that I know and the paper is stained with words I do not remember writing yet the ink is still wet! Voices echo from that I have never heard but I cannot stop Sigmar help"
— Richter Kless, scribbles in the margin of the Liber Chaotica, Warhammer
"The Lord Sigmar sends me visions of hell! I see gigantic treadmills eternally turning in the dark. I see uncountable masses of swarming vermin standing on their hind legs in a foul parody of Man. I see diabolic machines made by deranged mutants. I see bloated queens with atrophied limbs breeding their rotten offspring. All this I see, and in my head the dreadful tolling of the cursed bells still scream. It won't stop! The multitude of red eyes stare at us from the darkness of sewers and graves. They loathe us, and they will rise to devour us all for our sins! Make it stop, please make it stop!"
— Hieronymus Bouscus, Warhammer: Skaven Army Book (6th edition)
"Legion's dead... and a week from now, catching up with the instant of his death, he will blink out of existence. Four days from now, we will make love for the last time. Afterwards, I cry... and after that... what happens after that? I didn't see it coming... Legion dead... Wardog crippled... I'm making love to Legion. I'm scattering his ashes... I'm meeting him for the first time. But what happens after that? And why didn't I see it coming? That thing outside... it just kills... and kills... McQuillan screaming... it killed her lover, too... her bladder letting go... shouldn't be here... pattern broken... there was a Crooked Man and he... white wine turning red... white and red, like blood and bone, like chessmen... the board's askew... the gamer's hands are scorched and blackened... all strategies are shredded in the random wind... nothing is certain now... But if this game is lost... if this world falls... I see a universe eaten alive by chaos... and another universe... and another... like dominoes... tumbling... I see the future... and it is cancelled."
— Cobweb fresh from losing her mind, Captain Britain, "The Sound And The Fury"
"Then tell me how a traitor can betray both sides at once," Anchet harshly says, "unless he is utterly mad!"
"Because he loves all things as one," Bicek says quietly, "because he sees all sides are the same, and so perhaps in that sense he is mad. It is said that those who see most clearly are holy fools and mad people. A curious paradox, is it not?"
"Because he loves all things as one," Bicek says quietly, "because he sees all sides are the same, and so perhaps in that sense he is mad. It is said that those who see most clearly are holy fools and mad people. A curious paradox, is it not?"
— Change Of Heart, by Steven Scott Ripley
"The shadow's coming, boy. The shadow's coming. Not here yet. Not for a little while. But it's coming. It's going to eat you up, boy. You listen! The pigeons seen it! They seen it all! The shadow's coming. Young people never listen. He's coming for you, boy. Not yet, not yet... you'll have to sing like the angels to keep him away. I ain't mad. I ain't crazy. They seen it coming. The pigeons know best. They seen it coming."
— Matthew's Grandmother, A Madness Of Angels
She was prone to divine madness, though, and perhaps she was better suited to the spiritual part of medicine than the healing part. It interfaced well with her foolishness; she received damning knowledge of crimes and spoke them out without a second thought. Much more justice was dealt with her help.
— The Prophecies Begin, Filtered Through Oral Tradition
, a Warrior Cats fanfiction
, a Warrior Cats fanfiction"Why should they listen to me? Half of them think I'm mad. You're to blame, Hazel, because you know I'm not and still you won't listen."
— Fiver, Watership Down
Kira: The skies weep blood and the earth rages beneath us. Where do we stand in this war of titans? I am to tell you of what the Great Guardian desires. Will you hear me?
The Taken: Does everybody worshiping Dreeg speak like this?
Kira: If you were blessed by the kiss of destiny, you too would make peace with her silken tongue. The gift we bear is a heavy burden. Not all are fit to transcend its meanings.
The Taken: Does everybody worshiping Dreeg speak like this?
Kira: If you were blessed by the kiss of destiny, you too would make peace with her silken tongue. The gift we bear is a heavy burden. Not all are fit to transcend its meanings.
