Trying to capture the physicists' precise mathematical description of the quantum world with our crude words and mental images is like playing Chopin with a boxing glove on one hand and a catcher's mitt on the other.
George JohnsonRead
Whenever you read a book or have a conversation, the experience causes physical changes in your brain. It's a little frightening to think that every time you walk away from an encounter, your brain has been altered, sometimes permanently.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading and conversations change our brains physically, impacting us permanently.
This quote by George Johnson emphasizes the profound impact that reading and engaging in conversations can have on our brains. Each experience contributes to our mental development and can alter our thinking patterns, sometimes leaving lasting impressions that shape who we are as individuals, reflecting the importance of continuous learning and interaction in our lives.
Themes
ReadingConversationBrainLearningExperience
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of literacy in education.
More from George Johnson
All quotes →Similar quotes
Imagine a world where children were fed tasty and nutritious, real food at school from the age of 4 to 18. A world where every child was educated about how amazing food is, where it comes from, how it affects the body and how it can save their lives.
Jamie OliverRead
I routinely interview college students, mostly from top schools, and I notice that their brains are like old maps, with lots of blank spaces for the uncharted terrain. It's not that they lack for motivation or IQ. It's that they can't connect the dots when they don't know where the dots are in the first place.
Bret StephensRead
By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books. I knew in the first grade that they were lying to me because I had already been exposed to other points of view. School is basically about one point of view -- the one the teacher has or the textbooks have. They don't like the idea of having different points of view, so it was a battle. Of course I would pipe up with my five-year-old voice.
Alan KayRead
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
Sydney J. HarrisRead
People from my sort of background needed Grammar schools to compete with children from privileged homes like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Benn.
Margaret ThatcherRead
A classical work doesn't ever have to be understood entirely. But those who are educated and who are still educating themselves must desire to learn more and more from it.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelRead