We are not passive exhibitors of visual or auditory or tactile images. We have selves. We have a Me that is automatically present in our minds right now.

We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, we are feeling machines that think.

More may have been learned about the brain and the mind in the 1990s - the so-called decade of the brain - than during the entire previous history of psychology and neuroscience.

A conscious mind is a mind with a self in it.

There is no such thing as a disembodied mind. The mind is implanted in the brain, and the brain is implanted in the body.

I continue to be fascinated by the fact that feelings are not just the shady side of reason but that they help us to reach decisions as well.

Emotions are enmeshed in the neural networks of reason.

The self is a perpetually recreated neurobiological state.

Consciousness begins when brains acquire the power, the simple power I must add, of telling a story.

The problem that we, as living organisms, face - and not we only, humans, but any living organism faces - is the management of life.

Rather than being a luxury, emotions are a very intelligent way of driving an organism toward certain outcomes.

Getting out of bed with a smile on your face most days is the start of being and knowing you are successful.

The beautiful illusion of fiction is that everything makes sense and that there was a purpose, that there was a point to it all. And that's the best possible lie because it may even be true.

I can always get through to-day very nicely. It's to-morrow I can't live through

When you get caught up on other peoples' problems, solve them with caution so you don't suffer the excessive burdens of regrets.

Before I met the Jesuits, I’d never encountered another group who thought that intellect and arrogance were treasures beyond price and necessities in waging wars against blasphemers, heretics.

I'll be like Bob Hope, touring when I'm 100.

Let her (Truth) and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?

The purpose of speech is to enliven the bliss in others.

I'd love to do a Columbo-type detective character in a series.

Orange? Like Effie's hair?" I say. "A bit more muted," he says. "More like sunset.