“Skepticism must go hand in hand with rationality. When theories are shown to be false, the correct thing to do is to move on.”

“I am an optimist about consciousness: I think that we will eventually have a theory of it, and in this book I look for one. But consciousness is not just business as usual; if we are to make progress, the first thing we must do is face up to the things that make the problem so difficult. Then we can move forward toward a theory, without blinkers and with a good idea of the task at hand.”

“Studies of violin players by Thomas Elbert have shown that the region of the brain responsible for moving the left hand… increases in size as a result of practice.”

“The rational thing for a layperson to do is to take seriously the prevailing scientific theory.”

“Anyone who dismisses out of hand evidence that U. S. intelligence agencies still do some of the things that they now brag about having done not too long ago is not a skeptic, but a fool.”

“It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. In fact, some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it is that it is unquestionably correct.”

“For action to be rational, the beliefs on which it is based must themselves be well founded. In turn, this requirement is divided into two parts. On the one hand, the beliefs must be unbiased with respect to the information the agent possesses; on the other hand, he must gather an optimal amount of information.”

“Everything in life has a place, and when one thing moves, it must go somewhere else.”

“Your words and actions must go hand-in-hand, so as to avoid any type of contradiction in the near future.”

“the Devil's hand directs our every move - / the things we loathed become the things we love”