Cognitive Quotes:

As an artist, where do you conjure these concepts? They come through you instead of through cognitive thought.

- Nick Littlemore

topic: Artist, Cognitive, Concepts

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

- William Shakespeare

source: 'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. [259]

topic: Inspirational, Positive, Happiness, Horatio, Either Or

You're never going to learn something as profoundly as when it's purely out of curiosity

- Christopher Nolan

topic: Curiosity, Intellectual Curiosity, Life Learning, Cognitive

Humans create their cognitive powers by creating the environments in which they exercise those powers

- Edwin Hutchins

source: Edwin Hutchins (1995). “Cognition in the Wild”, p.169, MIT Press

topic: Exercise, Creating, Environment, Cognitive

Cognitive and character skills work together as dynamic complements; they are inseparable. Skills beget skills. More motivated children learn more. Those who are more informed usually make wiser decisions.

- James Heckman

topic: Children, Character, Skills, Complement, Cognitive

When looking at the brain, it is important to go beyond its structure to its function. This is because often in cognitive disorders, the structure of the brain is intact, but its function is compromised.

- Aditi Shankardass

source: "Searching for roots of learning disorders" by Aditi Shankardass, www.cnn.com. July 13, 2010.

topic: Brain, Important, Structure, Cognitive

The brain is a monstrous, beautiful mess. Its billions of nerve cells - called neurons - lie in a tangled web that displays cognitive powers far exceeding any of the silicon machines we have built to mimic it.

- William Allman

topic: Beautiful, Lying, Cells, Cognitive, Beautiful Mess

Wisdom is tolerance of cognitive dissonance.

- Robert Thurman

topic: Tolerance, Cognitive Dissonance, Dissonance, Cognitive

Hope is not an emotion; it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process.

- Brené Brown

topic: Thinking, Way, Emotion, Cognitive

For me, the glory of the human animal is cognitive activity.

- Terence McKenna

topic: Animal, Glory, Humans, Cognitive

Emotional function and cognitive function aren't unrelated to each other. They're completely intertwined.

- Amishi Jha

source: Source: www.gq.com

topic: Emotional, Function, Intertwined, Cognitive

A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith,

- Pascal Boyer

topic: Traits, Cognitive

The foundations of the world are to be found, not in the cognitive experience of conscious thought, but in the aesthetic experience of everyday life.

- Alfred North Whitehead

topic: Beauty, Everyday, Foundation, Cognitive

It has been an obsession of human beings to create a hierarchy that places the human species on top and lumps all the "other animals" together beneath us. The resulting "speciesism" allows us to look upon animals as less deserving of all manner of rights and considerations than humans. To support this lower status, humans have argued that animals act instinctually; don't have souls; don't feel physical pain like we do; and lack self-consciousness, cognitive intelligence, emotional feelings, morality, and ethics.

- Sharon Gannon

source: "Sharon Gannon on Veganism". jivamuktiyoga.com. November 16, 2016.

topic: Pain, Animal, Emotional, Speciesism, Cognitive

Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics.

- Steven Pinker

source: "Steven Pinker: fighting talk from the prophet of peace". Interview with John Naughton, www.theguardian.com. October 15, 2011.

topic: Memories, Psychology, Mind, Cognitive

I suspect that a lot of the stress we see around us arises from the cognitive dissonance set up by one side of the brain hearing very plausible spin while the other side knows it just ain't so.

- David Palmer

topic: Stress, Brain, Cognitive Dissonance, Dissonance, Cognitive

I always look at myself knowing that I will have a certain degree of cognitive distortion.

- Sarah Silverman

source: "Sarah Silverman Opens Up About Depression, Comedy And Troublemaking". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. October 22, 2015.

topic: Knowing, Degrees, Looks, Cognitive

Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind and are then refined and improved by experience.

- Garry Kasparov

source: Garry Kasparov (2010). “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom”, p.11, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

topic: Art, Science, Unique, Nexus, Cognitive

When it comes to exploring the mind in the framework of cognitive neuroscience, the maximal yield of data comes from integrating what a person experiences - the first person - with what the measurements show - the third person.

- Daniel Goleman

topic: Yield, Data, Mind, Cognitive, Neuroscience

The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

- Christopher Hitchens

topic: Song, Pain, Loneliness, Dissonance, Cognitive

My feeling is that a human being or any complex organism has a system of cognitive structures that develop much in the way the physical organs of the body develop. That is, in their fundamental character they are innate; their basic form is determined by the genetic structure of the organism. Of course, they grow under particular environmental conditions, assuming a specific form that admits of some variation. Much of what is distinctive among human beings is a specific manner in which a variety of shared cognitive structures develop.

- Noam Chomsky

source: Source: chomsky.info

topic: Character, Feelings, Environmental, Cognitive, Innate

When parents have college savings accounts for their kids, their kids show higher social and cognitive performance.

- Dan Ariely

source: "Mental depletion complicates financial decisions for the poor". Interview with Kristen Doerer, www.pbs.org. January 19, 2016.

topic: Kids, College, Parent, Cognitive, Savings Accounts

Humor is basically a cognitive process. And it's a creative process not only on the part of the cartoonist but on the part of the viewer.

- Robert Mankoff

source: Source: www.npr.org

topic: Creative, Process, Cartoonist, Cognitive

In studying language we can discover many basic properties of this cognitive structure, its organization, and also the genetic predispositions that provide the foundation for its development. So in this respect, linguistics, first of all, tries to characterize a major feature of human cognitive organization. And second, I think it may provide a suggestive model for the study of other cognitive systems. And the collection of these systems is one aspect of human nature.

- Noam Chomsky

source: Source: chomsky.info

topic: Thinking, Organization, Trying, Linguistics, Cognitive

Of all the systems of the body - neurological, cognitive, special, sensory - the cardiological system is the most sensitive and easily disturbed. The role of society must be to shelter these systems from infection and decay, or else the future of the human race is at stake. Like a summer fruit that is protected from insect invasion, bruising, and rot by the whole mechanism of modern farming; so must we protect the heart.

- Lauren Oliver

source: Lauren Oliver (2014). “Delirium: The Complete Collection: Delirium, Hana, Pandemonium, Annabel, Raven, Requiem”, p.47, Harper Collins

topic: Summer, Heart, Race, Cognitive

As the nature deficit grows, another emerging body of scientific evidence indicates that direct exposure to nature is essential for physical and emotional health. For example, new studies suggest that exposure to nature may reduce the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and that it can improve all children's cognitive abilities and resistance to negative stresses and depression.

- Richard Louv

topic: Children, Stress, Emotional, Hyperactivity, Adhd

I tend to write first drafts that are incredibly cognitive, very rational, very boring. They come off as justification. Like, 'This is my idea and here's all the reasons that it's right.' It doesn't make for very compelling reading.

- Donald Miller

topic: Reading, Writing, Ideas, Cognitive

The fact that we have been able to develop a successful science, which issues in ever more accurate predictions and broader explanations, is the real ground for confidence that we are in a position to gain knowledge of the world around us. At the same time, one might ask how it is that the cognitive equipment we have came about, and here, no doubt, our evolutionary origins are relevant.

- Hilary Kornblith

topic: Real, Successful, Issues, Knowledge Of The World, Cognitive

The cybernetics phase of cognitive science produced an amazing array of concrete results, in addition to its long-term (often underground) influence

- Francisco Varela

source: Eleanor Rosch, Evan Thompson, Francisco J. Varela (1992). “The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience”, p.38, MIT Press

topic: Long, Phases, Cybernetics, Cognitive, Cognitive Science

Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability.

- Derek Bok

topic: Cognitive, College Degree

How can we encourage other human beings to extend their moral sympathies beyond a narrow locus? How can we learn to become mere human beings, shorn of any more compelling national, ethnic, or religious identity? We can be reasonable. It is in the very nature of reason to fuse cognitive and moral horizons. Reason is nothing less than the guardian of love.

- Sam Harris

source: Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.190, W. W. Norton & Company

topic: Love, Religious, Identity, Cognitive, Religious Identity

I do believe that there are some universal cognitive tasks that are deep and profound - indeed, so deep and profound that it is worthwhile to understand them in order to design our displays in accord with those tasks.

- Edward Tufte

topic: Believe, Order, Profound, Cognitive

The elegant study... is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience . Every aspect of thought and emotion is rooted in brain structure and function, including many psychological disorders and, presumably, genius. The study confirms that the brain is a modular system comprising multiple intelligences, mostly nonverbal.

- Steven Pinker

source: "On Einstein's brain". The New York Times, June 24, 1999.

topic: Psychological Disorders, Brain, Genius, Cognitive, Structure And Function

As long as I stared at the clock, at least the world remained in motion. Not a very consequential world, but in motion nonetheless. And as long as I knew the world was still in motion, I knew I existed. Not a very consequential existence, but an existence nonetheless. It struck me as wanting that someone should confirm his own existence only by the hands of an electric wall clock. There had to be a more cognitive means of confirmation. But try as I might, nothing less facile came to mind.

- Haruki Murakami

topic: Wall, Mean, Hands, Cognitive

The existential attitude is one of involvement in contrast to a merely theoretical or detached attitude. "Existential" in this sense can be defined as participating in a situation, especially a cognitive situation, with the whole of one's existence.

- Paul Tillich

topic: Attitude, Existentialism, Existence, Cognitive

Space and force pervade language. Many cognitive scientists (including me) have concluded from their research on language that a handful of concepts about places, paths, motions, agency, and causation underlie the literal or figurative meanings of tens of thousands of words and constructions, not only in English but in every other language that has been studied.

- Steven Pinker

source: Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.355, W. W. Norton & Company

topic: Agency, Space, Research, Cognitive

A willingness to engage in the give and take of argument displays a commitment to cognitive egalitarianism - the proposition that all people should be treated as intellectual equals, and that no individual can legitimately claim a privileged immunity from the burden of proof.

- George H. Smith

source: George H. Smith (2000). “Why Atheism?”, Pyr Books

topic: Commitment, Egalitarianism, People, Cognitive, Give And Take

Sperry's thinking about subjective experience, consciousness, the mind, and human values makes a powerful plea for a new scientific examination of ethics in the workings of consciousness. These ideas were crystallized in his paper "The Impact and Promise of the Cognitive Revolution" (1993).

- Roger Wolcott Sperry

topic: Powerful, Thinking, Impact, Cognitive

The new way of thinking, spawned by the cognitive revolution, shows strong promise. Reversing previous doctrine in science, the new paradigm affirms that the world we live in is driven not solely by mindless physical forces but, more crucially, by subjective human values. Human values become the underlying key to world change.

- Roger Wolcott Sperry

source: "Science and the Problem of Values". Book by Roger Wolcott Sperry, 1972.

topic: Strong, Thinking, Keys, Cognitive, Way Of Thinking

Deep attention, the cognitive style traditionally associated with the humanities, is characterized by concentrating on a single object for long periods (say, a novel by Dickens), ignoring outside stimuli while so engaged, preferring a single information stream, and having a high tolerance for long focus times. Hyper attention is characterized by switching focus rapidly among different tasks, preferring multiple information streams, seeking a high level of stimulation, and having a low tolerance for boredom.

- N. Katherine Hayles

topic: Boredom, Long, Focus, Cognitive, Hyper

A good title holds magic, some cognitive dissonance, a little grit between the teeth, but above all it is the jumping-off place into wonder.

- Barbara Kingsolver

topic: Book, Jumping, Magic, Jumping Off, Dissonance

Without the instruments and accumulated knowledge of the natural sciences... humans are trapped in a cognitive prison. They are like intelligent fish born in a deep shallowed pool. Wondering and restless, longing to reach out, they think about the world outside. They invent ingenious speculations and myths about the origin of the confining waters, of the sun and the sky and the stars above , and the meaning of their own existence. But they are wrong, always wrong because the world is too remote from ordinary experience to be merely imagined.

- E. O. Wilson

topic: Stars, Intelligent, Thinking, Ingenious, Cognitive

Yes, expertise puts on in position to have further, cognitive pleasures, but these pleasures are distinct from the sensory pleasure of tasting wines

- Kent Bach

topic: Wine, Pleasure, Position, Cognitive, Tasting

Buddhists were actually the first cognitive-behavioral therapists.

- Jack Kornfield

topic: Buddhist, Firsts, Therapists, Cognitive, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

The emergence of a unified cognitive moment relies on the coordination of scattered mosaics of functionally specialized brain regions. Here we review the mechanisms of large-scale integration that counterbalance the distributed anatomical and functional organization of brain activity to enable the emergence of coherent behaviour and cognition. Although the mechanisms involved in large-scale integration are still largely unknown, we argue that the most plausible candidate is the formation of dynamic links mediated by synchrony over multiple frequency bands.

- Francisco Varela

source: "The brainweb: phase synchronization and large-scale integration", Nature Rviews Vol 2, p. 229, 2001.

topic: Organization, Brain, Mosaics, Cognitive, Unified

Just as a man working with his tools should know its limitations, a man working with his cognitive apparatus must know its limitations.

- Charlie Munger

topic: Men, Tools, Should, Cognitive

Many of the cognitive enhancement drugs serve to increase focus and concentration. But 'letting your mind wander' is very often an important part of the creative process.

- Jamais Cascio

topic: Focus, Creative, Drug, Cognitive, Enhancement

Though we have been stuffing them into classrooms and cubicles for decades, our brains actually were built to survive in jungles and grasslands. A lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary.

- John Medina

topic: Exercise, Brain, Cubicles, Cognitive, Grasslands

When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. We're often doing things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing... Continuous partial attention describes how many of us use our attention today... to pay partial attention - continuously. It is different from multi-tasking.

- Linda Stone

topic: Desire, Different, Tasks, Cognitive, Multi Tasking

We cannot therefore say that mental acts contain a cognitive as well as a conative element.

- Samuel Alexander

topic: Elements, Mental Health, Wells, Cognitive

Love is a cognitive, willful act. Feelings have very little to do with it, particularly around three o'clock in the morning when the baby needs changing or somebody has "lost it" before getting to the bathroom to throw up.

- Kevin Leman

source: Kevin Leman (1987). “Women who try too hard: breaking the pleaser habits”

topic: Baby, Morning, Love Is, Cognitive