Ironically, some of our most stubborn habits and disorders are products of our plasticity.

Everything having to do with human training and education has to be re-examined in light of neuroplasticity.

Thought changes structure... I saw people rewire their brains with their thoughts, to cure previously incurable obsessions and trauma.

Mind training matters. It is not just a luxury, or a supplementary vitamin for the soul. It determines the quality of every instant of our lives.

Nothing speeds brain atrophy more than being immobilized in the same environment.

Neuroplasticity contributes to both the constrained and unconstrained aspects of our nature. It renders our brains not only more resourceful, but also more vulnerable to outside influences.

Because it is a 'use it or lose it' brain, when we develop a map area [in the brain], we long to keep it activated. Just as our muscles become impatient for exercise if we've been sitting all day.

Not all activities are equal... Those that involve genuine concentration - studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, and dancing - are associated with a lower risk for dementia.

...an effective psychotherapist or psychoanalyst is a "microsurgeon of the mind" who helps patients make needed alterations in neuronal networks.

We all have what might be called a culturally modified brain, and as cultures evolve, they continually lead to new changes in the brain.

Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors.

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.

The ever clearer consciousness that love can dispense with marriage, yet marriage cannot dispense with love, is already partially recognized by modern society, by the facility of divorce.

I'll fight somebody in my backyard for free, just to see if I'm better than him.

You have to be slightly blind to believe in any cause.

What is that mountain goat doing way up here in the clouds?

Integrity gives. It is not a taker.

Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life.

The more you perform, the more adept you get at the nuances of navigating that communal conversation.

But they're laughing at you. They're not laughing with you.

I grew up in a broken home. My dad was out of the home when I was five years old. I never knew him very well.