David Eagleman Quotes

Quotes about:

• What we find is that our brains have colossal things happening in them all the time.

  David Eagleman

  Brain, Happenings, Colossal

  "Persistance Is the Essence of Creativity" by Orion Jones, bigthink.com.

  53 Copy quote

• You´re not perceiving what's out there. You're perceiving whatever your brain tells you.

  David Eagleman

  Brain

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.42, Vintage

  11 Copy quote

• A typical neuron makes about ten thousand connections to neighboring neurons. Given the billions of neurons, this means there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissue as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

  David Eagleman

  Stars, Mean, Brain

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.6, Vintage

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• There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.

  David Eagleman

  Names, Three, Body

  FaceBook post by David Eagleman from Feb 15, 2012

  29 Copy quote

• Instead of reality being passively recorded by the brain, it is actively constructed by it.

  David Eagleman

  Reality, Brain

  Twitter post from Apr 25, 2016

  26 Copy quote

• The first lesson about trusting your senses is: don't. Just because you believe something to be true, just because you know it's true, that doesn't mean it is true.

  David Eagleman

  Believe, Mean, Lessons

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.64, Vintage

  14 Copy quote

• We are not conscious of most things until we ask ourselves questions about them.

  David Eagleman

  Conscious, Asks

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.64, Vintage

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• As Carl Jung put it, "In each of us there is another whom we do not know." As Pink Floyd sang, "There's someone in my head, but it's not me."

  David Eagleman

  Jung, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• It turns out your conscious mind - the part you think of as you - is really the smallest part of what’s happening in your brain, and usually the last one in line to find out any information.

  David Eagleman

  Thinking, Brain, Mind

  "Stray Questions for: David Eagleman". Interview with Blake Wilson, artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com. July 10, 2009.

  14 Copy quote

• Every atom in your body is the same quark in different places at the same moment in time.

  David Eagleman

  Different, Atoms, Body

  David Eagleman (2009). “Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives”, p.84, Vintage

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• Constant reminding ourselves that we not see with our eyes but with our synergetic eye-brain system working as a whole will produce constant astonishment as we notice, more and more often, how much of our perceptions emerge from our preconceptions.

  David Eagleman

  Eye, Perception, Brain

  15 Copy quote

• Our ignorance of the cosmos is too vast to commit to atheism, and yet we know too much to commit to a particular religion. A third position, agnosticism, is often an uninteresting stance in which a person simply questions whether his traditional religious story (say, a man with a beard on a cloud) is true or not true. But with Possibilianism I’m hoping to define a new position - one that emphasizes the exploration of new, unconsidered possibilities. Possibilianism is comfortable holding multiple ideas in mind; it is not interested in committing to any particular story.

  David Eagleman

  Religious, Ignorance, Men

  "Stray Questions for: David Eagleman". Interview with Blake Wilson, artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com. July 10, 2009.

  16 Copy quote

• We are not the ones driving the boat of our behavior, at least not nearly as much as we believe.

  David Eagleman

  Believe, Driving, Boat

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain”, p.129, Canongate Books

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• You are more likely to believe that a statement is true if you have heard it before - whether or not it is actually true.

  David Eagleman

  Believe, Heard, Ifs

  Source: www.goodreads.com

  13 Copy quote

• Many people prefer a view of human nature that includes a true side and a false side - in other words, humans have a single genuine aim and the rest is decoration, evasion, or cover-up. That's intuitive, but it's incomplete. A study of the brain necessitates a more nuanced view of human nature.

  David Eagleman

  Views, People, Brain

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.114, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• Since we live in the heads of those who remember us, we lose control of our lives and become who they want us to be.

  David Eagleman

  Want, Remember, Our Lives

  David Eagleman (2009). “Sum: Tales from the Afterlives”, p.25, Canongate Books

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• In the traditionally taught view of perception, data from the sensorium pours into the brain, works its way up the sensory hierarchy, and makes itself seen, heard, smelled, tasted, felt - "perceived." But a closer examination of the data suggests this is incorrect. The brain is properly thought of as a mostly closed system that runs on its own internally generated activity.

  David Eagleman

  Running, Views, Data

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.55, Vintage

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• We don't really understand most of what's happening in the cosmos. Is there any afterlife? Who knows.

  David Eagleman

  Afterlife, Cosmos, Knows

  "David Eagleman: 'We won't die - our consciousness will live forever on the internet'". Interview With Sean O'Hagan, www.theguardian.com. April 3, 2010.

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• When one part of the brain makes a choice, other parts can quickly invent a story to explain why. If you show the command "Walk" to the right hemisphere (the one without language), the patient will get up and start walking. If you stop him and ask why he's leaving, his left hemisphere, cooking up an answer, will say something like "I was going to get a drink of water."

  David Eagleman

  Water, Choices, Leaving

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.143, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• Knowing yourself now requires the understanding that the conscious you occupies only a small room in the mansion of the brain, and that it has little control over the reality constructed for you.

  David Eagleman

  Reality, Small Rooms, Knowing

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.209, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• If our brains were simple enough to be understood, we wouldn't be smart enough to understand them.

  David Eagleman

  Smart, Simple, Brain

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.233, Vintage

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• Nothing is inherently tasty or repulsive - it depends on your needs. Deliciousness is simply an index of usefulness.

  David Eagleman

  Needs, Depends, Tasty

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain”, p.65, Canongate Books

  4 Copy quote

• The first thing we learn from studying our own circuitry is a simple lesson: most of what we do and think and feel is not under our conscious control.

  David Eagleman

  Simple, Thinking, Lessons

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.9, Vintage

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• Keep in mind that every single generation before us has worked under the assumption that they possessed all the major tools for understanding the universe, and they were all wrong, without exception.

  David Eagleman

  Understanding, Mind, Generations

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain”, p.232, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• It is only through us that God lives. When we abandon him, he dies.

  David Eagleman

  God Life, Abandon, Dies

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