#ff

Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#because #brains #effort #explain #how

I maintain, despite the moment's evidence against the claim, that we are born and grow up with a fondness for each other, and we have genes for that. We can be talked out of it, for the genetic message is like a distant music, and some of us are hard-of-hearing. Societies are noisy affairs, drowning out the sound of ourselves and our connection. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#against #born #claim #connection #despite

If you want to use a cliche you must take full responsibility for it yourself and not try to fob it off on anon., or on society. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#cliche #full #must #off #responsibility

There's really no such thing as the agony of dying. I'm quite sure that pain is shut off at the moment of death. You see, something happens when the body knows it's about to go. Peptide hormones are released by cells in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. Endorphins. They attach themselves to the cells responsible for feeling pain. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#agony #attach #body #cells #death

We are not like the social insects. They have only the one way of doing things and they will do it forever, coded for that way. We are coded differently, not just for binary choices, go or no-go. We can go four ways at once, depending on how the air feels: go, no-go, but also maybe, plus what the hell let's give it a try. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#also #binary #choices #coded #depending

Well, biology today as I see it has an amiable look - quite different from the 19th-century view that the whole arrangement of nature is hostile, 'red in tooth and claw.' That came about because people misread Darwin's 'survival of the fittest.' ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#about #amiable #arrangement #because #biology

I do love the idea of being able to take an MP to court for lying. There are ways and means of taking an MP to court just now, but it is very difficult. ↗

— Mark Thomas

#being #court #difficult #i #i do

So I still seized the power, but I felt that if I officially made myself the boss, in black and white, it would be too intimidating for the other producers and the other men who worked on the show. In other words, I had the power, but I gave them the title. ↗

— Marlo Thomas

#black and white #boss #felt #gave #had

We all know by now that Barack Obama is not a patriot. After all, he doesn't always wear a flag pin, and he objects to the idea that he should be required to in order to run for office. ↗

— Will Thomas

#always #barack #barack obama #flag #idea

I've always enjoyed interleague play. It gives you a chance to see different clubs, to go to different places. It gives you a good chance to see where you are, where you stand with other teams. ↗

— Jim Thome

#chance #clubs #different #different places #enjoyed