It seems that the brain has a "small world" architecture - or at least the cortex does. Everything can connect to everything else in a few synaptic steps.

It is surely important that the differences between coma, deep sleep, being under anesthesia, on the one hand, and being alert on the other, all involve changes in the brain.

Brains are not magical; they are causal machines.

Humility bids us to take ourselves as we are; we do not have to be cosmically significant to be genuinely significant.

Theorizing is of course essential to make progress in understanding, but theorizing in the absence of knowing available relevant facts is not very productive.

It seems probable that humans have been on the planet, with much the same brain, for about 250,000 years.

If you give up because you announce the phenomenon cannot be explained, you are missing out.

In all probability, mental states are processes and activities of the brain. Exactly what activities, and exactly at what level of description, remains to be seen.

Suppression of impulses that would put you in danger is obviously an important neurobiological function.

I am less attracted to guesses about what cannot be done, than about making progress on a problem.

When that theory is isolated from known facts, it is likely not to be productive.

Discipline is a bridge built through everyday action.

The attitude of unconditional self-acceptance is probably the most important variable in their long-term recovery.

Each time I visit Japan, I am reminded of how Canadian I am and how little racial connection matters.

Look at all the conflict between tribes, nations, and religions. They need their enemies, because they provide the sense of separateness on which their collective egoic identity depends.

Do everything as if He were dwelling in us. Thus we shall be His temples and He will be within us as our God - as He actually is.

People readily believe what they want to believe.

If you understand what the other team is trying to do to stop you, it makes your job easier.

The Law is a grim, unsmiling thing. Not Justice, though. Justice is witty and whimsical and kind and caring.

It's not what you know, it's what you think you know.

New York's home. It's everything I'd want it to be. It's the most inspiring city I've ever been to, and I haven't been everywhere in the world, but I've been to quite a few places.