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Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks Quotes

Neurologist

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Famous Oliver Sacks Quotes

“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.”

SometimesDreamPastNightLanguageMemoriesCryMetsGoldTablesMy FavoriteBoxesHeavyConfusedChemistryTransitionMetalsOperaTransformedManhattanTinGridsPlatinumPeriodic TableValued Friends
Author:Oliver Sacks
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“Thus the feeling I sometimes have - which all of us who work closely with aphasiacs have - that one cannot lie to an aphasiac. He cannot grasp your words, and cannot be deceived by them; but what he grasps he grasps with infallible precision, namely the expression that goes with the words, the total, spontaneous, involuntary expressiveness which can never be simulated or faked, as words alone can, too easily.”

SometimesFeelingsLyingExpressionSpontaneousDeceivedPrecisionInfallibleInvoluntary
Author:Oliver Sacks
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“I think there are dozens or hundreds of different forms of creativity. Pondering science and math problems for years is different from improvising jazz. Something which seems to me remarkable is how unconscious the creative process is. You encounter a problem, but can't solve it.”

ThinkingYearsDifferentProblemSeemsFormProcessCreativityCreativeJazzSolveMathEncountersUnconsciousRemarkableDozenCreative ProcessPonderingImprovisingMath Problems
Author:Oliver Sacks
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“The rhythm of music is very, very important for people with Parkinson's. But it's also very important with other sorts of patients, such as patients with Tourette's syndrome. Music helps them bring their impulses and tics under control. There is even a whole percussion orchestra made up exclusively of Tourette's patients.”

PeopleMadeImportantWholeHelpingMusic IsPatientRhythmImpulseOrchestraSyndromesParkinsonParkinson'sPercussionTicsTourettes
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“Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does-humans are a musical species.”

FirstsHumansDoeMovingLanguageEmotionBrainBeatsAreasDancingSpeciesDepthMusicalLiftsHeightPower Of MusicFirst Date
Book:Migraine
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“To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future; the freedom to get beyond ourselves...in states of mind that allow us to rise above our immediate surroundings and see the beauty and value of the world we live in.”

WorldNeedsMindStatesValuesUnderstandingOur LivesBasesPatternsExplanationState Of MindDay To DaySurroundingsRise AboveTransportInsufficient
Author:Oliver Sacks
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“The power of music, narrative and drama is of the greatest practical and theoretical importance. ... We see how the retarded, unable to perform fairly simple tasks involving perhaps four or five movements or procedures in sequence, can do these perfectly if they work to music.”

IfsCan DoSimpleFiveFourMovementDramaTasksImportancePracticalsNarrativeSequenceTheoreticalProceduresInvolvingRetardedPower Of Music
Book:The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Picador Classic
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“Dr. Kertesz mentioned to me a case known to him of a farmer who had developed prosopagnosia and in consequence could no longer distinguish (the faces of) his cows, and of another such patient, an attendant in a Natural History Museum, who mistook his own reflection for the diorama of an ape”

FacesNaturalKnownCasesReflectionConsequencePatientMuseumsFarmersCowsDrsApesNatural History
Book:The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
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“The miracle is that, in most cases, he succeeds - for the powers of survival, of the will to survive, and to survive as a unique inalienable individual, are absolutely, the strongest in our being: stronger than any impulses, stronger than disease.”

IndividualCasesSucceedDiseaseSurvivalUniqueMiracleStrongerImpulseStrongestWill To Survive
Book:The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Picador Classic
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