The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. Robert Frost
[Thomas] Willis suspected that the brain held more than his colleagues assumed. Like Newton, Willis was an alchemist willing to experiment to get to the truth. Willis was the first to dissect the nerves leading to the brain. He explained how they function together. His lectures held his audiences spellbound. In 1664 he published Ceribri Anatome, at the time the most comprehensive study of the brain. Secrets of the Occult
If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain, I have no reason for supposing that my beliefs are true. They may be sound chemically, but that does not make them sound logically. And hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms. J B S Haldane, Possible Worlds, 1927
Because the brain is overloaded most of the time with incoming information it seems that one of its functions is to screen out a large proportion of incoming perceptions. Dr Betty Edwards, Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain
It would appear that the left logical hemisphere can be persuaded or manipulated into believing a certain belief or behaviour was logically correct. Once this is established in the mind of the individual, then it appears possible to carry out any form of atrocity under the cloak of it being justifiable. David Pederson, Cameral Analysis
Everything I am is really a product of my brain. Professor Bruce Hood, Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2011: What’s In Your Head?
It’s our brain who makes us as we are. ibid.
The body size doesn’t predict the size of the brain. ibid.
There are about a hundred billion neurons in the human brain. ibid.
The fact that our twin cerebral system is dominated by the least functional side has set up a bizarre problem: the Self that is damaged dominates us and, because it is damaged, we don’t realise the extent of the problem. It is stuck in its own distorted and limited version of reality ... and does all it can to maintain this illusion. Graham Gynn & Tony Wright, Left in the Dark
I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of the Mazarin Stone
I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it’s a very poor scheme for survival. Kurt Vonnegut
I’m crazy. I’m nuts. Just the way my brain works. I’m not normal. I think differently. Justin Bieber
Consciousness turns out to consist of a maelstrom of events distributed across the brain. These events compete for attention, and as one process outshouts the others, the brain rationalizes the outcome after the fact and concocts the impression that a single self was in charge all along. Steven Pinker
It’s likely that taboo words are stored in the right hemisphere of the brain. Massive left hemisphere strokes or the entire surgical removal of the left hemisphere can leave people with no articulate speech other than the ability to swear, spout clichés and song lyrics. Steven Pinker
What a splendid head, yet no brain. Aesop
Aristotle taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons. Will Cuppy, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, 1950
The brain is a mystery; it has been and still will be. How does the brain produce thoughts? That is the central question and we have still no answer to it. Charles Scott Sherrington
Learning, that cobweb of the brain,
Profane, erroneous, and vain. Samuel Butler, 1612-1680, Hudibras
We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. Maria Montessori
Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don’t believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it. John Steinbeck
Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
If it were true that brain trauma had something to do with aggression we would expect that every single murderer had some sort of brain trauma or brain injury, and that doesn’t happen. Dr Helen Morrison
Blast medicine anyway. We’ve learned to tie into every human organ in the body except one – the brain. The brain is what life is all about. That man can think any thought that we can, and love, hope, dream as much as we can, but he can’t reach out, and no one can reach in. Star Trek s1e11: The Menagerie I, McCoy
His [Spock’s] brain is gone. Star Trek s3e1: Spock’s Brain, McCoy to Kirk
The most important thing we share is our big brain. David Attenborough, The Life of Mammals X: Food for Thought
Male sperm whales have the largest brain of any animal that’s ever lived. Oceans: Sea of Cortez, BBC 2012
We think that the smaller digestive system in homo erectus that it was able to evolve because of the shift in diet. Freed-up energy that could then be used to power a larger brain. Professor Peter Wheeler, Liverpool John Moores University
My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery – always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What’s this passion for? Virginia Woolf
You use your brain too much. Sometimes the smartest people don’t think at all. The Office US s6e3: The Promotion, Michael to Jim
‘I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas.’
‘That is because you have no brains,’ answered the girl. ‘No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.’
The Scarecrow sighed.
‘Of course I cannot understand it,’ he said. ‘If your heads were stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains.’ L Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
I haven’t got a brain, only straw. The Wizard of Oz 1939 starring Judy Garland & Ray Bolger & Frank Morgan & Jack Haley & Bert Lahr & Billie Burke & Margaret Hamilton & Clara Blandick & Charley Grapewin & Terry the dog, director Victor Fleming, Scarecrow
If we look at the base of the brain which has just been removed from the skull ... Young Frankenstein 1974 starring Gene Wilder & Marty Feldman & Peter Boyle & Teru Garr & Cloris Leachman & Madeline Kahn & Kenneth Mars & Richard Haydn & Rolfe Sedan & Gene Hackman & Mel Brooks et al, director Mel Brooks, Frankenstein’s lecture
What makes you who you are? ... Can we change and should we change the traumatic memories that ruin lives? Decoding the Brain: Breakthrough, National Geographic 2015
An incredible piece of organic machinery. ibid.
When remembering factual details people got things wrong about 40% of the time; but when it came to remembering emotions they were wrong 60% of the time. ibid.
First we open the skull – so. Behold, the naked human brain. Dracula: Dead and Loving It 1995 starring Leslie Neilsen & Peter MacNicol & Steven Weber & Amy Yasbeck & Lysette Anthony & Harvey Korman & Mark Blankfield & Megan Cavanagh & Clive Revill & Mel Brooks et al, director Mel Brooks, Van Helsing’s autopsy
The most complex thing we’ve discovered in the universe is the human brain. For the past twenty years I’ve been trying to understand how what happens in three pounds of jello-like material somehow becomes us. The Brain with David Eagleman: What is Reality? BBC 2016
What is reality? … We’re all just an illusion constructed in your head. ibid.
Seeing relies less on the light streaming into our eyes and more on what’s already in our head. ibid.
Colour doesn’t actually exist. ibid.