Nervous System Quotes - Page 5

• "You don't believe in God," I said to Stein. "God is a word banging around in the human nervous system. He exists about as much as Santa Claus." "Santa Claus has had a tremendous influence, exist or not." "For children." "Lots of saints have died for God with a courage that's hardly childish." "That's part of the horror. It's all a fantasy. It's all for nothing."

  Peter De Vries

  Children, Believe, Atheism

  Peter De Vries (2012). “The Blood of the Lamb: A Novel”, p.182, University of Chicago Press

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• Perfect replication is the enemy of any robust system... Lacking a central nervous system much less a brain the parasite is a simple system designed to compromise a very specific target host. The more uniform the host, the more effective the infestation.

  Daniel Suarez

  Simple, Perfect, Enemy

  Daniel Suarez (2010). “Daemon”, p.270, Hachette UK

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• We can only know in the nervous system what we have known in behavior first.

  Julian Jaynes

  Firsts, Nervous, Behavior

  Julian Jaynes (2000). “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”, p.28, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• In its evolution from a more primitive nervous system, the brain, as an organ with ten or more billion neurons and many more connections between them must have changed and grown as a result of many accidents.

  Stanislaw Ulam

  Brain, Connections, Neurons

  "Adventures of a Mathematician". Book by Stanislaw Ulam, 3rd edition. Chapter 15: "Random Reflections on Mathematics and Science", p. 274, 1991.

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• I am persuaded that we are all surrounded by an atmosphere - a separate, sensitive, distinct envelope extending some distance from our visible persons - and whenever my invisible atmosphere is invaded, it affects my whole nervous system. The proximity of any bodies but those I love best is unendurable to my body.

  Fanny Kemble

  Distance, Love Is, Atmosphere

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• External reality is sort of an affectation of the nervous system.

  Jaron Lanier

  Reality, Nervous

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• My nervous system is very much weakened - nothing but painting in oil can keep me going.

  Paul Cezanne

  Oil, Survival, Painting

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• A tendency to resume the same mode of action at stated times is peculiarly the characteristic of the nervous system; and on this account regularity is of great consequence in exercising the moral and intellectual power. All nervous diseases have a marked tendency to observe regular periods; and the natural inclination to sleep at the approach of night is another instance of the same fact.

  George Combe

  Sleep, Exercise, Night

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• I profoundly admire Aldous Huxley, both for his philosophy and uncompromising sincerity. But I disagree with his advocacy of 'the chemical opening of doors into the Other World', and with his belief that drugs can procure 'what Catholic theologians call a gratuitous grace'. Chemically induced hallucinations, delusions and raptures may be frightening or wonderfully gratifying; in either case they are in the nature of confidence tricks played on one's own nervous system.

  Arthur Koestler

  Philosophy, Doors, Other Worlds

  Arthur Koestler (1981). “Kaleidoscope: essays from Drinkers of infinity, and The heel of Achilles and later pieces and stories”, Vintage

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• LSD, wisely used by professionals, could reprogram enough nervous systems to accelerate consciousness and intelligence before we laid ourselves and our planet waste."To use your head you have to go out of your mind" "You are a God, act like one"

  Timothy Leary

  Mind, Use, Waste

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• The electric age ... established a global network that has much the character of our central nervous system.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Character, Science, Age

  Marshall McLuhan (1964). “Understanding media: the extensions of man”

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• Love floods our nervous system with positive energy, making us far more attractive to prospective employers, clients, and creative partners... Love leads us to act with impeccability, integrity, and excellence... Those things are the opposite of a poverty consciousness; they're the stuff of spiritual wealth creation.

  Marianne Williamson

  Spiritual, Integrity, Opposites

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• Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.

  Sam Keen

  Optimism, Walking Dead, Soul

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• The heavens were the grandstands and only the gods were spectators. The stake was the world, the forfeit was the player's place at the table, and the game had no recess. It was the most dangerous of all sports and the most fascinating. It got in the blood like wine. It aged men forty years in forty days. It ruined nervous systems in an hour.

  Elliott White Springs

  Sports, Wine, Player

  Elliott White Springs, A. Roy Brown, Floyd Phillips Gibbons, Norman Shannon Hall (1929). “Pilots' Luck”

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• I wouldn't say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I'd like my fear emotion to be less because it's very distracting and fries my nervous system.

  Elon Musk

  Inspirational, Facts, Emotion

  Interview with Jim Meigs, Joe Pappalardo, www.popularmechanics.co.za. December 1, 2012.

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• It is this potential for plasticity of the relatively stereotyped units of the nervous system that endows each of us with our individuality.

  Eric Kandel

  Individuality, Nervous, Units

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• Physiology seeks to derive the processes in our own nervous system from general physical forces, without considering whether these processes are or are not accompanied by processes of consciousness.

  Wilhelm Wundt

  Consciousness, Nervous, Process

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• Portraits of the Mind is a remarkable book that combines beautifully reproduced illustrations of the nervous system as it has been visualized over the centuries, as well as lively and authoritative commentaries by some of today's leading neuroscientists. It will be enjoyed by professionals and general readers alike.

  Dale Purves

  Book, Illustration, Mind

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• Presumably there are energies, to which each human is sensitive, that we cannot yet detect by means of our instruments. Built into our brains and our bodies are very sensitive tuneable receivers for energies that we do not yet know about in our science but that each one of us can detect under the proper circumstances and the proper state of mind. We can tune our nervous systems and bodies to receive these energies. We can also tune our brains and bodies to transmit these energies.

  John C. Lilly

  Mean, Brain, Mind

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• Most of the different types of cells in our body die and are replaced every few weeks or months. However, neurons, the primary cell of the nervous system, do not multiply (for the most part) after we are born. That means that the majority of the neurons in your brain today are as old as you are. This longevity of the neurons partially accounts for why we feel pretty much the same on the inside at the age of 10 as we do at age 30 or 77.

  Jill Bolte Taylor

  Mean, Cells, Brain

  Jill Bolte Taylor (2008). “My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey”, p.21, Penguin

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• Golf is the only game that pits the player against an opponent, the weather, the minutest details of a large chunk of local topography and his own nervous system, all at the same time.

  Mike Seabrook

  Golf, Player, Games

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• Your nervous system can't tell real failure from imagined failure.

  Maxwell Maltz

  Real, Nervous, Visualization

  Maxwell Maltz (2016). “Psycho-Cybernetics Deluxe Edition: The Original Text of the Classic Guide to a New Life”, p.147, Penguin

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• The patterns of activity of neurons in sensory areas can be altered by patterns of attention. Experience coupled with attention leads to physical changes in the structure and future functioning of the nervous system. This leaves us with a clear physiological fact…moment by moment we choose and sculpt how our ever-changing minds will work. We choose who we will be in the next moment in a very real sense, and these choices are left embossed in physical form in our material selves.

  Michael Merzenich

  Real, Self, Choices

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• Since with electricity we extend our central nervous system globally, instantly interrelating every human experience.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Nervous, Electricity, Human Experience

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• I know very well that many scientists consider dowsing as they do astrology, as a type of ancient superstition. According to my conviction this is, unjustified. The dowsing rod is a simple instrument which shows the uncanny reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown to us at this time.

  Albert Einstein

  Simple, Astrology, Superstitions

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