The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

It is in the interests of our society to promote those things that take the edge off, keep us busy with our fixes, and keep us slightly outnumbed and zombie-like. In this way our modern consumer society itself functions as an addict.

Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condenses and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.

The public hungers to see talented young people kill themselves.

Were Moses to go up Mount Sinai today, the two tablets he'd bring down with him would be aspirin and Prozac.

What is dangerous about tranquillizers is that whatever peace of mind they bring is a packaged peace of mind. Where you buy a pill and buy peace of mind with it, you get conditioned to cheap solutions instead of deep ones.

There isn't a feeling you can get on drugs that you can't get without drugs.

The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this.