Astounded—and indifferent—for he was a man who, in effect, had no ‘day before’.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the profound impact of living in the present moment, dismissing the past as irrelevant.
In this quote, Oliver Sacks reflects on the concept of time and existence, suggesting that some individuals experience life without attachment to their past. This perspective emphasizes a unique understanding of living in the moment, where one is 'astounded' by their current experiences, yet remains indifferent to what has come before. It points to a philosophical inquiry into identity and memory, and how they shape our understanding of self.
In practice
This quote could be used in a meditation workshop to emphasize the importance of living in the present moment.
There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate - the genetic and neural fate - of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.
In general, people are afraid to acknowledge hallucinations because they immediately see them as a sign of something awful happening to the brain, whereas in most cases they're not.
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
Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.
We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination.
I rejoice when I meet gifted young people... I feel the future is in good hands.
That everything is on fire, slow fire, and we're all less than a million breaths away from an oblivion more total than we can even bring ourselves to even try to imagine.
See! those fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness, the writhed lip of scorn, the mockery of that living eye, the pointed finger, touching the sore place in your heart! Do you remember any act of enormous folly, at which you would blush, even in the remotest cavern of the earth? Then recognize your Shame.
I don’t believe it is possible to transcend race in this country. Race is a factor in this society. The legacy of Jim Crow and slavery has not gone away. It is not an accident that African-Americans experience high crime rates, are poor, and have less wealth. It is a direct result of our racial history.
We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.
We cannot let our angels go; we do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in.
The mark of a man of the world is absence of pretension.
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