Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by John Medina

Quote by John Medina

Work

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

John Medina
John Medina

John Medina is a renowned molecular biologist born in 1956. He has made significant contributions to the field of molecular biology, particularly in the areas of gene expression and cellular signaling. Professor Medina's research has had a profound impact on biotechnology and the medical field. more

You May Also Like

“A plane in mathematics is not merely a flat surface but a flat surface of infinite thinness and size. Trivial? Not to us. When I say plane, I'm not thinking of a tabletop or sheet of glass or a piece of paper. You might point to any one of these objects; but all of them are precisely that: objects. They exist in the world. And because they do, they are defined by their breadth and reach. To a mathematician, a tabletop is no more a plane than a slice of rum cake is. In the world we know, in fact, the only thing that can actually be called a plane--or a portion of one, anyhow--is a shadow. You see? Words fail us. Even the world fails us. Are there not a thousand forms of sorrow? Is the sorrow of death the same as the sorrow of knowing the pain in a child's future? What about the melancholy of music? Is it the same as the melancholy of a summer dusk? Is the loss I was feeling for my father the same I would have felt for a man better-fit to the world who might have thrown a baseball with me or taken me out in the mornings to fish? Both we call grief. I don't think we have words for our feeling any more than we have words for our thoughts. I don't even believe that we actually do the things we call thinking and feeling. We do something, but it is only out of crudeness that we call it thinking; and when we do the other thing, we call it feeling. But I can tell you, if you asked Archimedes ... or Brahmagupta ... or Hilbert ... when they'd first known that they'd solved their great problem, I suspect they'd all say they had a feeling.”

ThinkingSorrowFeelingPlane
Book:A Doubter's Almanac
Create image

“What do you want?” The question stunned him. He could say he wanted nothing, that he felt like nothing, that he counted the days until darkness. He could say: Happiness beyond all worlds! A life of peace and love, entire and whole! He could say he wanted everything and nothing all at once. He thought for a moment, as the birds sang in the trees, of how often he felt like this.”

WantLifeHappinessDepressionThoughtFeelingQuestions
Book:The Light that Binds Us
Create image