We have, each of us, a life story, whose continuity, whose sense, is our lives. Oliver Sacks More Quotes by Oliver Sacks More Quotes From Oliver Sacks Scheele, it was said, never forgot anything if it had to do with chemistry. He never forgot the look, the feel, the smell of a substance, or the way it was transformed in chemical reactions, never forgot anything he read, or was told, about the phenomena of chemistry. He seemed indifferent, or inattentive, to most things else, being wholly dedicated to his single passion, chemistry. It was this pure and passionate absorption in phenomena-noticing everything, forgetting nothing-that constituted Scheele's special strength. Oliver Sacks dedication smell passion he wanted to do, to be, to feel- and could not; he wanted sense, he wanted purpose- in Freud's words, 'Work and Love'. Oliver Sacks and-love purpose feels There is certainly a universal and unconscious propensity to impose a rhythm even when one hears a series of identical sounds at constant intervals... We tend to hear the sound of a digital clock, for example, as "tick-tock, tick-tock" - even though it is actually "tick tick, tick tick. Oliver Sacks digital example sound If migraine patients have a common and legitimate second complaint besides their migraines, it is that they have not been listened to by physicians. Looked at, investigated, drugged, charged, but not listened to. Oliver Sacks physicians medicine science The power of music, narrative and drama is of the greatest practical and theoretical importance. ... We see how the retarded, unable to perform fairly simple tasks involving perhaps four or five movements or procedures in sequence, can do these perfectly if they work to music. Oliver Sacks narrative simple drama I had never thought about what it might mean to be deaf, to be deprived of language, or to have a remarkable language (and community and culture) of one’s own. Up to this point, I had mostly thought and written about the problems of individuals–here I was to encounter an entire community. Oliver Sacks encounters community mean I think hallucinations need to be discussed. There are all sorts of hallucinations, and then many sorts which are okay, like the ones I think which most of us have in bed at night before we fall asleep, when we can see all sorts of patterns or faces and scenes. Oliver Sacks night fall thinking Astounded—and indifferent—for he was a man who, in effect, had no ‘day before’. Oliver Sacks effects indifferent men There is among doctors, in acute hospitals at least, a presumption of stupidity in their patients. Oliver Sacks doctors stupidity patient Dr. Kertesz mentioned to me a case known to him of a farmer who had developed prosopagnosia and in consequence could no longer distinguish (the faces of) his cows, and of another such patient, an attendant in a Natural History Museum, who mistook his own reflection for the diorama of an ape Oliver Sacks drs reflection museums First thing about being a patient-you have to learn patience. Oliver Sacks sickness patient firsts Hydrogen selenide, I decided, was perhaps the worst smell in the world. But hydrogen telluride came close, was also a smell from hell. An up-to-date hell, I decided, would have not just rivers of fiery brimstone, but lakes of boiling selenium and tellurium, too. Oliver Sacks smell lakes rivers The brain is the most intricate mechanism in the universe, i couldn't imagine spending my life with kidneys. Oliver Sacks health-news
