Portuguese - Scientist | February 25, 1944 -
Some of us, for better or worse, develop very stable, consistent, and largely predictable machineries of self. But in others, the self machinery is more flexible and more open to unexpected turns.
Antonio Damasio
SelfBetterUnexpectedFlexibleMore
I got interested in the emotions after studying patients who had lost the ability to emote and feel under certain circumstances. Many of those patients also had major impairments in their ability to make decisions.
DecisionsFeelEmotionsLostAbility
You still have only one self and one identity. However, self, identity and personality are not things, they are not objects, and they certainly are not rigid. Instead, they are biological processes built within the brain from numerous interactive components, step by step, over a period of time.
TimePersonalityStepIdentityBrain
I continue to be fascinated by the fact that feelings are not just the shady side of reason but that they help us to reach decisions as well.
DecisionsReachHelpFeelingsReason
We do not merely perceive objects and hold thoughts in our minds: all our perceptions and thought processes are felt. All have a distinctive component that announces an unequivocal link between images and the existence of life in our organism.
LifeThoughtsThoughtMindsHold
Rather than being a luxury, emotions are a very intelligent way of driving an organism toward certain outcomes.
DrivingLuxuryEmotionsWayBeing
There is no such thing as a disembodied mind. The mind is implanted in the brain, and the brain is implanted in the body.
MindBrainBodyThing
When you deal with something like compassion for physical pain, which we know is very, very old in evolution - we can find evidence for it in nonhuman species - the brain processes it at a faster speed. Compassion for mental pain took many seconds longer.
CompassionPainBrainSpeedYouOld
Consciousness, much like our feelings, is based on a representation of the body and how it changes when reacting to certain stimuli. Self-image would be unthinkable without this representation.
BodyFeelingsChangesWithoutWould
Writing long hand is the last refuge. One needs the time it takes to put pencil to paper and let it run along the ruled line.
TimeWritingLongRunHandPencil
For pure joy, I look at a small painting by Arbit Blatas. An ocean liner is at the center of the composition, perhaps ready to depart. It holds the promise of discovery.
OceanJoyPaintingSmallLookReady
Why do we have a brain in the first place? Not to write books, articles, or plays; not to do science or play music. Brains develop because they are an expedient way of managing life in a body.
LifeMusicScienceBrainBodyPlay
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Antonio Damasio quotes