301 Quotes by Oliver Sacks

Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives - we are each of us unique.

A disease is never a mere loss or excess. There is always a reaction on the part of the organism or individual to restore, replace or compensate for and to preserve its identity, however strange the means may be.

I am a man of vehement disposition, with violent enthusiasms, and extreme immoderation in all my passions.

It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me.

And I often dream of chemistry at night, dreams that conflate the past and the present, the grid of the periodic table transformed to the grid of Manhattan. [...] Sometimes, too, I dream of the indecipherable language of tin (a confused memory, perhaps, of its plaintive "cry"). But my favorite dream is of going to the opera (I am Hafnium), sharing a box at the Met with the other heavy transition metals my old and valued friends Tantalum, Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium, Platinum, Gold, and Tungsten.

In terms of brain development, musical performance is every bit as important educationally as reading or writing.

We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination.

Did being in love itself flood the body with opioids, or cannabinoids, or whatever?

We are all creatures of our upbringings, our cultures, our times.