22 Eric Kandel Quotes for You to Enjoy

Eric Kandel

American Scientist

Born: Nov 7, 1929

Biology Me Memory People Together You

Related authors: Ben Carson Carl Sagan E. O. Wilson George Washington Carver Isaac Asimov Margaret Mead Neil deGrasse Tyson W. Edwards Deming

Indeed, artists, particularly modern artists, have intentionally limited the scope and vocabulary of their expression to convey, as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt do, the most essential, even spiritual, ideas of their art. Eric Kandel

Art Spiritual Mark Indeed Vocabulary Ideas Most Particularly Limited Scope Modern Essential Artists Intentionally Convey Even Expression Ad

If you read any of my books, they tend to have a strong historical perspective. Eric Kandel

You Strong Perspective Books Tend Read Historical Any

I've been around a long time, and I've been interested in memory for a long time. And one of my earlier interests in molecular biology of memory led me to define the switch that converts short term to long term memory. Eric Kandel

I have a philosophy that has guided me throughout all of my scientific career, and that is, I think of myself as a fairly thoughtful person. I don't go into projects impetuously, and I try to select important problems. Eric Kandel

Myself Me Try Problems Important Think Philosophy Guided Projects Thoughtful Select Throughout Fairly Scientific Go Person Career

The brain is a complex biological organ possessing immense computational capability: it constructs our sensory experience, regulates our thoughts and emotions, and controls our actions. Eric Kandel

Thoughts Experience Emotions Organ Our Complex Immense Possessing Constructs Computational Brain Controls Sensory Capability Actions Biological

Nerve cells communicate with one another at specialized points called synapses. And these synapses are plastic - they can be modified by learning. Eric Kandel

Learning Communicate Nerve Points Another Cells Modified Plastic Specialized

I found working in the lab is so completely different than reading a textbook about it. You know, you're planning strategies; you're working with your own hands. There's essential satisfaction in running experiments. Eric Kandel

You Reading Own Running About Know Lab Textbook Than Hands Essential Different Experiments Working Your Planning Strategies Satisfaction Found

Ever since the Enlightenment, people thought that we were living in a rational universe. They thought that God was a mathematician and that the function of the scientist was to figure out the mathematical rules whereby the universe was created. Eric Kandel

God People Thought Living Universe Rules Out Rational Since Scientist Were Mathematical Mathematician Whereby Created Figure Function Ever Enlightenment

Life is sort of a circle. You come back to a lot of the interests that you had early in life. Eric Kandel

Life You Circle Back Had Come Sort Lot Interests Early

In the 1950s and early 1960s, psychoanalysis swept through the intellectual community, and it was the dominant mode of thinking about the mind. People felt that this was a completely new set of insights into human motivation, and that its therapeutic potential was significant. Eric Kandel

You could double the number of synaptic connections in a very simple neurocircuit as a result of experience and learning. The reason for that was that long-term memory alters the expression of genes in nerve cells, which is the cause of the growth of new synaptic connections. Eric Kandel

I was interested in the nature of human mental processes, which is what got me interested in psychoanalysis. And it became clear to me after a while that mental processes come from the brain, and in order to understand them, you need to be a biologist of the brain. Eric Kandel

Early in my career, I was disappointed that psychoanalysis was not becoming more empirical, was not becoming more scientific. It was primarily concerned with individual patients. It wasn't trying to collect data from large groups of people who have been analyzed. Eric Kandel

People Analyzed Collect Data More Individual Primarily Disappointed Empirical Concerned Scientific Becoming Been Trying Patients Psychoanalysis Who Large Groups Large Groups Early Career

I went to medical school after having decided to do so somewhere between my junior and senior year at Harvard - very late. I initially wanted to be an intellectual historian. Eric Kandel

School Somewhere Year Late Harvard Having Between Historian Intellectual Very Junior Senior Senior Year Wanted After Decided Initially Medical Medical School

Modernism in Vienna brought together science and culture in a new way to create an Age of Insight that emphasized a more complex view of the human mind than had ever existed before. Eric Kandel

Together Science Age Culture Mind Before Way Complex Insight Brought More Had Emphasized New Existed Than New Way Human Modernism Create Vienna View Human Mind Ever

One of the ultimate challenges of biology is to understand how the brain becomes consciously aware of perception, experience and emotion. But it is equally conceivable that the exchange would be useful for the beholders of art, for people who enjoy art, for historians, and for the artists themselves. Eric Kandel

Art Challenges Experience People Perception Enjoy Biology Would Would-Be Emotion Exchange Equally Understand Becomes How Ultimate Brain Historians Artists Themselves Useful Who Aware

Eric Kandel Quotes

No more Eric Kandel quotes