Hirstein Quotes & Sayings

Those who stay calm on a rope-bridge will also realise that the rope-bridge too stays calm and lets the traveller to cross the other side easily! Universe helps to those who are tranquil and cool. — Mehmet Murat Ildan

When one loves another without considering marriage as the goal, it's sexual harassment. — Chairman Mao

The conscious events that we are aware of are physical events in their own right, just as much as the brain events observed in the lab by researchers. If we allow the mental its own existence as a category disjoint from the physical, we will never be able to get it back in. — William Hirstein

Research from Denis Dutton, Brian Boyd, V.S. Ramachandran, William Hirstein and E.O. Wilson, among many others, is clear on the subject: we are enticed by forms, shapes, rhythms and movements that are useful to our existence. We find Vermeer's "The Girl with the Pearl Earring," beautiful, for example, because her face is symmetrical, a clue to her strong immune system2. As the neuroscientist Eric Kandel suggests in The Age of Insight, we are fascinated by Gustav Klimt's Judith because "at a base level, the aesthetics of the image's luminous gold surface, the soft rendering of the body, and the overall harmonious combination of colors could activate the pleasure circuits, triggering the release of dopamine. If Judith's smooth skin and exposed breast trigger the release of endorphins, oxytocin, and vasopressin, one might feel sexual excitement. — Anonymous

As sheer casual reading matter, I still find the English dictionary the most interesting book in our language. — Albert J. Nock

Men were willing to wear the same clothes until they rotted off. Of — Robert Jordan

If you look at your average contemporary person, the potential for tragedy is immense. The people and things we love and value are strewn across the globe. Any number of health disasters can befall you or them.
The truth is depressing. We are going to die, most likely after illness; all our friends will likewise die; we are tiny insignificant dots on a tiny planet. Perhaps with the advent of broad intelligence and foresight comes the need for confabulation and self-deception to keep depression and its consequent lethargy at bay. There needs to be a basic denial of our finitude and insignificance in the larger scene. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah just to get out of bed in the morning. — William Hirstein

South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum. — James L. Petigru

My redeemer is always the person next to me. — Sylvia Boorstein

You don't have to test everything to destruction just to see if you make it right. — Terry Pratchett