Mad as a march hare.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.

It's wiser being good than bad;

It's safer being meek than fierce;

It's fitter being sane than mad.

My own hope is, a sun will pierce

The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;

That after Last returns the First,

Though a wide compass round be fetched;

That what began best can't end worst,

Nor what God blessed once prove accurst.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Apparent Failure. vii.

How sad and bad and mad it was!

But then, how it was sweet!

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Confessions. ix.

There is a pleasure sure

In being mad which none but madmen know.

John Dryden (1631-1701): The Spanish Friar. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Means not, but blunders round about a meaning;

And he whose fustian's so sublimely bad,

It is not poetry, but prose run mad.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 186.

The dog, to gain his private ends,

Went mad, and bit the man.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog.

That he is mad, 't is true: 't is true 't is pity;

And pity 't is 't is true.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

An undevout astronomer is mad.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night ix. Line 771.