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

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.

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

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.

If [Jesus] felt that He had to pray, how much more do we need to pray!

I am facing the most difficult thing of my life, my own greatest failure.

Memories, even bittersweet ones, are better than nothing.

It's all been satirized for your protection.

Every place is a place to practice. Every time is a time to practice. Zen is concerned with the thought we have this moment rather than with rituals or rules of behavior

I can remember much forgetfulness.

The most comforting feeling ever is knowing that someone truly likes your entire existence. I feel that way right now. Thank you.

An across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes ... to expand the incentives and opportunities of private expenditures.

We should never allow ourselves to be bullied by an either-or. There is often the possibility of something better than either of these two alternatives.

Those wishing to be successful in the market can't ignore the boomer numbers, the wealth and spending power they have.