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    Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. ('What else could it be?') I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.

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  11  /  10  

A cripple in the right way may beat a racer in the wrong one. Nay, the fleeter and better the read more

A cripple in the right way may beat a racer in the wrong one. Nay, the fleeter and better the racer is, who hath once missed his way, the farther he leaveth it behind.

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  7  /  7  

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

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  10  /  12  

Facts per se can neither prove nor refute anything. Everything is decided by the interpretation and explanation of the facts, read more

Facts per se can neither prove nor refute anything. Everything is decided by the interpretation and explanation of the facts, by the ideas and the theories.

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  6  /  14  

Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don't shoot up too high, so in practical arts the leaves read more

Just as some plants bear fruit only if they don't shoot up too high, so in practical arts the leaves and flowers of theory must be pruned and the plant kept close to its proper soil- experience.

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  7  /  11  

...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

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  7  /  15  

Certes, they been lye to hounds, for an hound when he cometh by the roses, or by other bushes, though read more

Certes, they been lye to hounds, for an hound when he cometh by the roses, or by other bushes, though he may nat pisse, yet wole he heve up his leg and make a countenance to pisse.

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  6  /  13  

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

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  9  /  9  

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.

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All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

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