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Cognition Quotes

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Cognition Quotes

“لقد كان الإدراك حقاً سبباً من أسباب الشقاء، إلا أننا لا يمكن أن نتخلى عنه ما إن نكبر، لأن اللامبالاة ستورثنا المزيد من الأذى، أدركتُ حينئذ أنه ما أن نكبر لا يعود في إمكاننا أن نتخلى عن الإدراك ولن نرغب في ذلك أصلاً، لأنه إذا ما حدث ذلك سنوسم بالجنون.”

SufferingGrowing UpMadnessInsaneInsanityIndifferenceCognitionCraziness
Book:صراع الأقنعة
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“Though normally the handshake simply confirmed the trustworthiness of an agreement, with perhaps an aura of divine protection, Attic grave reliefs suggest a further extension of the idea for they "show handshaking as a symbol of Faith at the parting between the dead and the living. Thus, handshaking was not only a sign of agreement among the living, but the gesture of trust and faith in the supreme departure." With us the handshake is hardly a conscious gesture, but nonetheless one does not expect to be attacked by someone with whom one has just shaken hands. A refusal of a proffered handshake, however, would make the ritual gesture conscious indeed: breaking the ritual raises ominous questions that would require an explanation.”

SocietyTrustMoralityCivilizationRitualCognitionHuman Species
Book:Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age
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“Stressful conditions tax our cognitive bandwidth, reducing our ability to think clearly and exercise executive control. Stress also hurts our ability to make rational long-term decisions that require delayed gratification. Living in a community in which we feel a sense of trust and support acts as a buffer against the detrimental impact of scarcity. However, a higher level of income inequality in our community can fray our sense of social trust.”

CommunityBrainTrustStressRationalInequalityRationalityCognitionScarcityDelayed Gratification
Book:Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things
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“It is usually unbearably painful to read a book by an author who knows way less than you do, unless the book is a novel.”

BookStoriesWisdomHumorFunnyPainSufferingQuotesLiteratureUnderstandingGriefEducationConsciousnessFictionKnowledgeNovelLearningToo MuchSadnessAwarenessIgnoranceHumourBooksSorrowDespairPerceptionHeartbreakJokesHumorousCapacityAccountsMiseryEntertainmentAppreciationIgnorantCommandEducatedRealizationNarrativeAccomplishmentHeartacheTortureAuthorWriterEnlightenedSatireStoryWritersUnhappinessCapabilityMasteryNonfictionAcceptableAphorismEntertainingAgonyDistressQuotationsJokeTormentEssaysHilariousEscapeUnbearableDiscomfortAuthorsUnderstandKnowExpertiseScholarshipComprehensionAphorismsSchoolingEscapismApprehensionCognitionKnowledgeableIlliterateDesolationEssaySkillUneducatedTolerableWretchednessManageableWell EducatedScholarlyAphoristAphoristsOverpoweringInsufferableUninformedEruditeUnendurableEruditionProficiencyLearnedNarrativesComprehendAccountEntertainGraspSustainableUnacceptableWell ReadInexperiencedCultivatedCulturedIntolerableWell InformedCognizanceUnschooledUnsophisticatedEndurableInsupportableUnworldlyMan Of LettersUnknowledgeableUnreadUntrainedVia DolorosaAdeptnessAdmissibleBe Acquainted WithBe Conversant WithBe Familiar WithBe Up To Speed OnBe Versed InBenightedBrookableExpertnessHave A Grasp OfHave Knowledge OfHave LearnedHave MasteredHave MemorizedKnowledgableMen Of LettersSufferableSupportableUnenlightenedUnlearnedUnletteredUnmanageableUntaughtUntutoredWoman Of LettersWomen Of Letters
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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“The doctors found one electrode contact that greatly relieved the woman's symptoms. But the unexpected happened when the electric current passed through one of the four contact sites on the patient's left side, precisely two millimeters below the contact that improved her condition. The patient stopped her ongoing conversation quite abruptly, cast her eyes down and to her right side, then leaned slightly to the right and her emotional expression became one of sadness. After a few seconds she suddenly began to cry. Tears flowed and her entire demeanor was one of profound misery. Soon she was sobbing. As this display continued she began talking about how deeply sad she felt, how she had no energies left to go on living in this manner, how hopeless and exhausted she was. [ . . . ] The physician in charge of the treatment realized that this unusual event was due to the current and aborted the procedure. About ninety seconds after the current was interrupted the patient's behavior returned to normal. [ . . . ] Why would this patient's brain evoke the kind of thoughts that normally cause sadness considering that the emotion and feeling were unmotivated by the appropriate stimuli? The answer has to do with the dependence of feeling on emotion and the intriguing ways of one's memory. When the emotion sadness is deployed, feelings of sadness instantly follow. In short order, the brain also brings forth the kind of thoughts that normally cause the emotion sadness and feelings of sadness. This is because associative learning has linked emotions with thoughts in a rich two-way network. Certain thoughts evoke certain emotions and vice-versa.”

EmotionMemoryFeelingCognition
Book:Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain
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“Another big group of dolphins had just surfaced alongside our moving vessel—leaping and splashing and calling mysteriously back and forth in their squeally, whistly way, with many babies swift alongside their mothers. And this time, confined to just the surface of such deep and lovely lives, I was becoming unsatisfied. I wanted to know what they were experiencing, and why to us they feel so compelling, and so—close. This time I allowed myself to ask them the question that was forbidden fruit: Who are you? Science usually steers firmly from questions about the inner lives of animals. Surely they have inner lives of some sort. But like a child who is admonished that what they really want to ask is impolite, a young scientist is taught that the animal mind—if there is such—is unknowable. Permissible questions are “it” questions: where it lives; what it eats; what it does when danger threatens; how it breeds. But always forbidden—always forbidden—is the one question that might open the door: “Who?” — Carl Safina”

ThinkingScienceEmotionAnimalsConservationCognitionThinking Outside The Box
Book:Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
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“I treat my thoughts like an old person treats their valuables: I cannot for the life of me proceed to throwing them out.”

ThinkingLifeMindWisdomHumorFunnyDeathArtistBeliefBrainOpinionKnowledgeCreativityPsychologyHonestyIntellectualThoughtsTraditionLogicInstinctPositivityValuableIntuitionTreasureThoughtRationalConsiderationThinkerConfessionNegativityThinkIrrationalSentimentalStubbornHabitsCognitionFunny But TruePreciousRationalizationOld HabitsOriginal ThoughtCreedOld PersonDiscard
Book:Healology
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“Be careful not to appear obsessively intellectual. When intelligence fills up, it overflows a parody.”

ThinkingPhilosophyWisdomHumorCareFunnyScienceBrainKnowledgePsychologyComedyHonestyHumilityPrideGeniusLaughterProfoundAddictionIntelligenceAppearanceTheologyObsessionArroganceExcessNot KnowingJokeRidiculeCautionObsessiveCognitionParodyFunny But TrueApologeticsOverflowOverthinkingKnow It AllGlassPretentiousnessOverdoing ItEgghead
Book:Healology
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“Happiness is a momentary illusion created by momentary neurochemical impulses. Contentment on the other hand, is not a momentary impulse, it is a broader and much more complicated cognitive apparatus, that puts things in perspective in a unique manner, without making you overwhelmed with momentary emotional impulses.”

InspirationalMotivationalHappinessInspiringConsciousnessWise WordsContentmentCognitionPhilosophy Of MindSage Advice
Book:Morality Absolute
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“Lingering, bottled-up anger never reveals the 'true colors' of an individual. It, on the contrary, becomes all mixed up, rotten, confused, forms a highly combustible, chemical compound then explodes as something foreign, something very different than one's natural self.”

HeartPainSufferingHopePeaceUnderstandingNaturalBrainCompassionPsychologyGraceEmotionalHealthGoodnessDepressionAnxietyHeartbreakForgivenessMercyAngerPatienceMental HealthRageMental IllnessPityConfusionHeartacheChemistryDisorderSympathyTemperMentalSecrecyHostilityRottenImpatienceUnnaturalCognitionAnger ManagementCombustionPassive AggressiveTrue ColorsCold HeartedForeignBottled UpFlammable
Book:Healology
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“Poor feeling hijacks thinking for self-deception: to hide harsh truths, avoid action, evade responsibility, and, as the existentialists might put it, flee from freedom. Thus, poor feeling is a kind of moral failing, indeed, the deepest kind, and virtue principally consists in correcting and refining our emotions and the values that they reflect. To feel the right thing is to do the right thing, without any particular need for conscious thought or effort.”

ReasonPhilosophyEmotionsEthicsExistentialismEmotional IntelligencePsychoanalysisSelf DeceptionCognition
Book:Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions
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“The destructive effects of video games are not on boys' cognitive abilities or their reaction times, but on their motivation and their connectedness with the real world.”

MotivationSocialBoysSocial IssuesCognitionVideo GamesRelatedness
Book:Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men
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“The inconsistencies that haunt our relationships with animals also result from the quirks of human cognition. We like to think of ourselves as the rational species. But research in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics shows that our thinking and behavior are often completely illogical. In one study, for example, groups of people were independently asked how much they would give to prevent waterfowl from being killed in polluted oil ponds. On average, the subjects said they would pay $80 to save 2,000 birds, $78 to save 20,000 birds, and $88 to save 200,000 birds. Sometimes animals act more logically than people do; a recent study found that when picking a new home, the decisions of ant colonies were more rational than those of human house-hunters. What is it about human psychology that makes it so difficult for us to think consistently about animals? The paradoxes that plague our interactions with other species are due to the fact that much of our thinking is a mire of instinct, learning, language, culture, intuition, and our reliance on mental shortcuts.”

ThinkingPsychologyBehaviorEthicsLogicCharityDecision MakingParadoxAnimalsCognitionRationalismIllogicalRational Thought
Book:Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals
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“I get a prompt about using my Dissociative Cognition System. It takes considerable effort to make even that decision, but I manage to give my systems the OK and immediately I can step back from the crushing burden of misery, cut off from certain aspects of my own biochemistry so that I can function and make rational decisions. It was an essential mod, for someone who was going to be on their own for long periods of time without any social contact. My emotions are still out there, and I can get fascinating readouts about what that locked-away part of me is actually feeling, good, indifferent, bad, worse, but it doesn't touch me unless I choose to open the door again. It's a fine line, I suspect, between useful logic and that pathological numbness that true depression can often lead to, where doing or wanting anything seems like climbing uphill.”

DepressionEmotionsLogicCognitionNumbnessDissociativeBiochemistry
Book:Elder Race
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“To sum up, then, fundamentalism is neither religion in excess nor politics in disguise. It is an attempt to preserve a particular kind of hierarchy based on coalition, when this is threatened by the perception of cheap and therefore likely defection.”

ReligionHumanIslamEvolutionary PsychologyCognitionAncestral BiasFundamentalismlism
Book:Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought
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“...the fact that early humans did decorate corpses, lay out the bodies in particular postures or bury people with flowers, aligned horns or tools would support the notion that some ritualization of death is a very ancient human activity.”

DeathReligionHumanEvolutionary PsychologyCognitionMemento MoriAncestral Bias
Book:Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought
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“A common explanation is that we imagine person-like agents who rule our destinies because this produces a reassuring view of our existence and the world around us. We project human features onto nonhuman aspects of our world because that makes these aspects more familiar and therefore less frightening.”

ReligionHumanEvolutionary PsychologyCognitionAncestral Bias
Book:Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought
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“Deeper integration of technology within the body, as well as the use of neuro-technological and neuropharmacological means of enhancing our bodies could affect how we feel and think – and therefore also how we act on the battlefield. While enhancement may boost cognitive and physical capabilities, they also diminish some deeply human features like compassion and empathy, that have been pivotal to us as a species, both for survival and cooperation.”

TechnologyHuman NatureEmpathyNeuroscienceCognitionHuman Enhancement TechnologiesNeuro Techno Philosophy
Author:Nayef Al-Rodhan
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“A human mind that has a hold over its prejudices is like the fabled philosopher's stone, everything it touches turns to gold, whereas a savage mind which is run by its prejudices is like an infectious disease, wherever it goes it causes death and destruction.”

Human NatureRacismPrejudiceBrainy QuotesCognitionBiasesPrejudicesSelf RegulationSelf RestraintImplicit Bias
Book:The Shape of A Human: Our America Their America
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“One way or another we are all biased, but still we have the modern cortical capacity to choose whether or not to let the harmful biases dictate our behavior.”

MindWisdomTruthHuman NatureSurvivalConscienceBrainy QuotesRationalReasoningHuman MindBiasHuman BehaviorNeuroscienceEvolutionary PsychologyCognitionBiasesNeuropsychologySelf RestraintMental StrengthPrimitive Human BehaviorScience Of MindMental Life
Book:We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism
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“The human brain always concocts biases to aid in the construction of a coherent mental life, exclusively suitable for an individual’s personal needs.”

MindWisdomTruthHuman NatureSurvivalConscienceBrainy QuotesRationalReasoningHuman MindBiasNeuroscienceEvolutionary PsychologyCognitionBiasesNeuropsychologyMental StrengthPrimitive Human BehaviorScience Of MindMental Life
Book:We Are All Black: A Treatise on Racism
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“Your loyalty to one ideology inadvertently conditions you to favor humans from the same ideology over the humans from different ideologies. So, ideologies can never in a million years bring progress. We are what we are, that is humans. And we have to act as such without identifying ourselves with some manmade label to look good and pompous”

PsychologyHatredPrejudiceHumanismCorruptionIdeologyHuman MindNeuroscienceCognitionBiases
Book:Let The Poor Be Your God
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“You are constantly told in depression that your judgment is compromised, but a part of depression is that it touches cognition. That you are having a breakdown does not mean that your life isn't a mess. If there are issues you have successfully skirted or avoided for years, they come cropping back up and stare you full in the face, and one aspect of depression is a deep knowledge that the comforting doctors who assure you that your judgment is bad are wrong. You are in touch with the real terribleness of your life. You can accept rationally that later, after the medication sets in, you will be better able to deal with the terribleness, but you will not be free of it. When you are depressed, the past and future are absorbed entirely by the present moment, as in the world of a three-year-old. You cannot remember a time when you felt better, at least not clearly; and you certainly cannot imagine a future time when you will feel better.”

IssuesFutureDepressionJudgmentPresentBreakdownCognitionTroubles
Book:The Noonday Demon: An Atlas Of Depression
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“To be naive is to be unaware of how stupid and cruel other people are; but, by some definitions, ignorance is nearly the opposite of naivety in being a kind of cynicism, in being unaware of their intelligence and humanity. It seems to be a normal although unfortunate case that the great many of us consciously abhor ignorance in others yet subconsciously practice it ourselves: as naivety is apparent and well-known to inflict its damage upon oneself; whereas the alternative and the easier, ignorance, its damage upon others.”

HumanityBrainPsychologyAwarenessIgnoranceTrustBalanceJudgmentConsciousHatredIntelligenceStupidityHarmCrueltySelfishnessDamageHypocrisyUnconsciousCynicismSubconsciousFoolishnessDistrustDiscernmentCognitionAbhorrenceNaivetyUnawarenessJudging PeopleSelfishness Judging People
Book:Healology
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“Consciousness is the fabric of human reality. Consciousness allows humankind to engage in reason, make sense out of things, apply logic, verify facts, and adjust our actions based upon deliberate decision-making and hierological beliefs. We possess the ability to change our perspective, modify how we think, and alter our emotional responses. People can assimilate their thoughts and align their goals premised upon guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community or personal ideology based upon practical skills, wisdom, virtue, goodness, and community goodwill. Humans exhibit a creative spark that enables them to employ both their hunches and rational thoughts to adjust to changing situations. We can make logical, aesthetic, moral, and ethical judgments. The ability to modify their thinking patterns empowers all humans to alter their functional reality. By integrating our consciousness around our purpose in life, we can each become congruent in our daily thoughts and deeds.”

ConsciousnessIdentitySelf RealizationLife PurposePurpose Driven LifeCognitionSelf ActualizationPersonality DevelopmentConsciousness Mind BrainIdentity Quotes
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“Prehistoric humans were too busy clawing their way to survival to consider suicide any sort of necessary option. Perhaps in a situation of imminent death there might be a decision to end one’s own life one’s own way instead of, say, by being ripped limb from limb by a surly gorilla. But apart from that, no, suicide was not a feature of the prehistoric human’s repertoire. In fact, I would further assert that suicide can only be a facet of modern society that expects happiness. And on that and many other bases, I suggest that happiness is a modern invention.”

LifeMindDeathNatureEvolutionAnxietyHomo SapiensCognition
Book:Footprints of Schizophrenia: The Evolutionary Roots of Mental Illness
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“Nevertheless, my contention is precisely that Homo sapiens sapiens possesses an innate, omnipresent, evolution-shaped predisposition for ordering its world, which among other things extends to form the foundation of mythology, metaphysics, and science. As with all other adaptive predispositions, this human propensity to construct interpretative mental frameworks of the world expresses itself as a powerful urge, a profound emotional need, which humans simply cannot help or do without. We are compulsive meaning seekers. It is this propensity -intertwined as it is with the evolution of symbolic representation and generalized conceptual thought- that is responsible for our species' remarkable career.”

MindWarReligionPsychologyEvolutionHumanCognitionCohesion
Book:War in Human Civilization
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