Great art allows you to transcend your mortal frame and to reach for the stars. I think great science does the same thing.

Curiosity illuminates the correct path to anything in life. If you're not curious, that's when your brain is starting to die.

Your conscious life is an elaborate after-the-fact rationalization of things you really do for other reasons.

What the neurology tells us is that the self consists of many components, and the notion of one unitary self may well be an illusion.

A culture without mythology is not really a civilisation.

People often ask how I got interested in the brain; my rhetorical answer is: 'How can anyone NOT be interested in it?' Everything you call 'human nature' and consciousness arises from it.

With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all.

Our ability to perceive the world around us seems so effortless that we tend to take it for granted.

The adage that fact is stranger than fiction seems to be especially true for the workings of the brain.

A genius is somebody who seemingly just reaches out of nowhere.

Remember that politics, colonialism, imperialism and war also originate in the human brain.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, alistening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, allof which have the potential to turn a life around.

Poetry is just so emo." he said. "Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul.

From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying:'Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment.

My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.

As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.

It isn't the people you fire who make your life miserable, it's the people you don't.

My hair dries straight naturally, so I'm always trying to find anything to give it volume or give it a little bit of bounce.

More things to remember: 7) The value of time; 8) The pleasure of working; 9) The obligation of duty; 10) The power of kindness; 11) The wisdom of economy; 12) The virtue of patience.

If you look at my career, I've never gone to a team that had fulfilled their potential.

Occasionally, when I run into a great bass backstage at a festival I'll play a few notes on the low E string, just to feel the instrument vibrate against my belly.