Will Jacoby

“How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago. These particles drifted for eons and light-years until gravity and change brought them together here, now. These atoms now form a conglomerate- your brain- that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder. With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all.”
― V.S. Ramachandran, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

“Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Culture, Behavior, Beauty, Books, Art, Eloquence, Power, Wealth, Illusions

“Man has to awaken to wonder – and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.”
― Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

“Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.”
― Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Advice for a Young Investigator