Quotessence
Home / Authors / Joshua Foer
Joshua Foer

Joshua Foer Quotes

Journalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMemoriesRememberOur MemoriesHumansWorldAbilityBookCultureIdeasIfsMemorableMemoryWayAgeCardsInspirationLanguageMindMinutesMotivation

Famous Joshua Foer Quotes

“With our blogs and tweets, digital cameras, and unlimited-gigabyte e-mail archives, participation in the online culture now means creating a trail of always present, ever searchable, unforgetting external memories that only grows as one ages.”

MeanAgeCultureGrowsMemoriesCreatingCamerasDigitalOnlineMailParticipationUnlimitedTrailsBlogsTweetArchivesDigital Cameras
Book:Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Create image

“We're all just a bundle of habits shaped by our memories. And to the extent that we control our lives, we do so by gradually altering those habits, which is to say the networks of our memory. No lasting joke, or invention, or insight, or work of art was ever produced by an external memory. Not yet, at least.”

ArtMemoriesOur LivesHabitJokesInsightInventionLastingWorks Of ArtOur MemoriesBundles
Book:Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Create image

“The art and science of memory is about developing the capacity to quickly create images that link disparate ideas. Creativity is the ability to form similar connections between disparate images and to create something new and hurl it into the future so it becomes a poem, or a building, or a dance, or a novel. Creativity is, in a sense, future memory.”

ArtIdeasFormMemoriesAbilityCreativityNovelBuildingCapacityConnectionsDevelopingSomething NewLinksArt And Science
Author:Joshua Foer
Create image

“Now more than ever, as the role of memory in our culture erodes at a faster pace than ever before, we need to cultivate our ability to remember. Our memories make us who we are. They are the seat of our values and source of our character. Competing to see who can memorize more pages of poetry might seem beside the point, but it's about taking a stand against forgetfulness, and embracing primal capacities from which too many of us have became estrangedmemory training is not just for the sake of performing party tricks; it's about nurturing something profoundly and essentially human.”

NeedsHumansCharacterSeemsMightRememberValuesCultureMemoriesAbilityPartyRolesSourcePagesTrainingCapacitySakeTricksFasterPerformingWho We AreSeatsPaceCompetingOur MemoriesNurturingForgetfulnessPrimalErode
Author:Joshua Foer
Create image

“Over the last few millennia we've invented a series of technologies - from the alphabet to the scroll to the codex, the printing press, photography, the computer, the smartphone - that have made it progressively easier and easier for us to externalize our memories, for us to essentially outsource this fundamental human capacity.”

HumansMadeLastsMemoriesTechnologyEasierComputerPhotographyCapacityFundamentalsPressesSeriesMade ItOur MemoriesPrintingAlphabetPrinting PressSmartphonesHuman Capacity
Author:Joshua Foer
Create image

“To attain the rank of grand master of memory, you must be able to perform three seemingly superhuman feats. You have to memorize 1,000 digits in under an hour, the precise order of 10 shuffled decks of playing cards in the same amount of time, and one shuffled deck in less than two minutes. There are 36 grand masters of memory in the world.”

WorldTwoAbleOrderThreeHoursMemoriesMinutesMastersAmountCardsPreciseDeckFeatsSuperhumanPlaying Cards
Author:Joshua Foer
Create image