Nothing speeds brain atrophy more than being immobilized in the same environment.

Everything having to do with human training and education has to be re-examined in light of neuroplasticity.

Thought changes structure... I saw people rewire their brains with their thoughts, to cure previously incurable obsessions and trauma.

Mind training matters. It is not just a luxury, or a supplementary vitamin for the soul. It determines the quality of every instant of our lives.

Ironically, some of our most stubborn habits and disorders are products of our plasticity.

Neuroplasticity contributes to both the constrained and unconstrained aspects of our nature. It renders our brains not only more resourceful, but also more vulnerable to outside influences.

Because it is a 'use it or lose it' brain, when we develop a map area [in the brain], we long to keep it activated. Just as our muscles become impatient for exercise if we've been sitting all day.

Not all activities are equal... Those that involve genuine concentration - studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, and dancing - are associated with a lower risk for dementia.

...an effective psychotherapist or psychoanalyst is a "microsurgeon of the mind" who helps patients make needed alterations in neuronal networks.

We all have what might be called a culturally modified brain, and as cultures evolve, they continually lead to new changes in the brain.

Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors.

When you remain silent, your voice is the loudest.

Sometimes we may seem to be resisting letting go, when really, we just can't see a way to move forward — believing things can never change for someone as unworthy as us.

I mean, death is a serious thing, certainly not to be sneezed at.

Every mother and daughter should make time for a trip together. It's good for the soul.

If you militarise a situation, you beg for an armed response.

In my life, I find that in sobriety, I feel much more. And I have much more depth.

Now I spend hours on headlines - days if necessary. And when I get a good headline, I know that my task is nearly finished.

I'd love to go to school, but every time I try I get a movie. That's actually how I get work: I enroll. That's like my good luck charm.

We must develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present but as they may become.

I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.