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Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks Quotes

Neurologist

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Famous Oliver Sacks Quotes

“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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“If we wish to know about a man, we ask 'what is his story--his real, inmost story?'--for each of us is a biography, a story. Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us--through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives--we are each of us unique.”

IfsKnowsMenDifferentRealStoriesFeelingsActionAsksWishPerceptionUniqueNarrativeOur ThoughtsBiographiesDiscourseOur ActionsNarration
Author:Oliver Sacks
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“There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. We are attracted to repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again, and in music we get it. Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability.”

IfsWantShouldChildrenLittlesSometimesUseYoungSongCoursesTeachBalanceAdultsRewardsMusicalComplainingTendenciesVulnerabilityInherentAgain And AgainRhymeSensitivityRepetitionStimulusRefrainChorusNurseryYoung ChildrenBalladsNursery Rhymes
Author:Oliver Sacks
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“Given her deafness, the auditory part of the brain, deprived of its usual input, had started to generate a spontaneous activity of its own, and this took the form of musical hallucinations, mostly musical memories from her earlier life. The brain needed to stay incessantly active, and if it was not getting its usual stimulation..., it would create its own stimulation in the form of hallucinations.”

IfsFormGivenMemoriesBrainNeededActivityMusicalActiveUsualSpontaneousDeprivedInputHallucinationsStimulationIncessantlyDeafnessAuditory
Book:Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
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“To be ourselves we must have ourselves – possess, if need be re-possess, our life-stories. We must “recollect” ourselves, recollect the inner drama, the narrative, of ourselves. A man needs such a narrative, a continuous inner narrative, to maintain his identity, his self.”

IfsMenNeedsSelfStoriesOur LivesIdentityDramaNarrativeLife Story
Book:The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Picador Classic
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“Scheele, it was said, never forgot anything if it had to do with chemistry. He never forgot the look, the feel, the smell of a substance, or the way it was transformed in chemical reactions, never forgot anything he read, or was told, about the phenomena of chemistry. He seemed indifferent, or inattentive, to most things else, being wholly dedicated to his single passion, chemistry. It was this pure and passionate absorption in phenomena-noticing everything, forgetting nothing-that constituted Scheele's special strength.”

IfsWayFeelsLooksSaidPassionForgetSpecialPurePassionateSmellReactionsSubstanceChemistryChemicalsDedicatedTransformedDedicationIndifferentNoticingAbsorptionChemical Reactions
Book:Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
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“For 'wellness', naturally, is no cause for complaint - people relish it, they enjoy it, they are at the furthest pole from complaint. People complain of feeling ill - not well ... Thus, though a patient will scarcely complain of being 'very well', they may become suspicious if they feel 'too well'.”

PeopleIfsFeelsWellsMayFeelingsCausesEnjoyHealthPatientIllComplainingWellnessComplaintsSuspiciousRelish
Book:The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Picador Classic
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