Mystery causes a mental itch, which the brain tries to soothe with the balm of reasonable talk. — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
The knowing, I told myself, is only a vapor of the mind, and yet it can wreck havok with one's sanity. — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“Only by fumbling with countless bits of knowledge, and then ignoring most of it, does a creative mind craft something original.” — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
Words are such small things, like confetti in the brain, and yet they are color and clarify everything, they can stain the… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
Wonder is a bulky emotion. When you let it fill your heart and mind, there isn't room for anxiety, distress or anything… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“It's not enough to do research from a distance. It's by living beside animals that you learn their behavior and psychology." On… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
Complexity excites the mind, and order rewards it. In the garden, one finds both, including vanishingly small orders too complex to spot,… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
[On gardens:] I think they're sanctuaries for the mind and spirit. ... It's easy to feel wonder-struck in a garden, especially if… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“All our senses feed the brain, and if it diets mainly on cruelty and suffering, how can it remain healthy? Change that… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“It's not enough to do research from a distance. It's by living beside animals that you learn their behavior and psychology.” — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
If a mind is just a few pounds of blood, urea, and electricity, how does it manage to contemplate itself, worry about… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
As anyone who has received or dispensed psychotherapy knows, it's a profession whose mainspring is love. Nearly everyone who visits a therapist… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“One job of the unconscious is to act as a workshop for rough-shaping ideas; crafting notions as new parts or tools become… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“The idea of safety had shrunk into particles - one snug moment, then the next. Meanwhile, the brain piped fugues of worry… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“How did he manage such feats of compassion while staying sane and creative? By stilling the mind and communing with nature: One… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“Love is the great intangible. In our nightmares, we can create beasts out of pure emotion. Hate stalks the streets with dripping… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
“I may enter a zone of transcendence, in which I marvel at all the accidents of fate, since the beginning of life… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share Image
A self is a frightening thing to waste, it's the lens through which one's whole life is viewed, and few people are willing to… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
“Our lives together, our duet, also continues to evolve, and even if we can’t go back to how it was, we’re designing a good… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth. — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
Look at your feet. You are standing in the sky. When we think of the sky, we tend to look up, but the sky… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
Who would deduce the dragonfly from the larva, the iris from the bud, the lawyer from the infant? ...We are all shape-shifters and magical… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
Though we marry as adults, we don't marry adults. We marry children who have grown up and still rejoice in being children, especially if… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
“The etymology of the Hebrew word for prophet, navi, combines three processes: navach (to cry out), nava (to gush or flow), and navuv (to… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
Knee-deep in the cosmic overwhelm, I’m stricken by the ricochet wonder of it all: the plain everythingness of everything, in cahoots with the everythingness… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
Symbolic of life, hair bolts from our head[s]. Like the earth, it can be harvested, but it will rise again. We can change its… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
“Most people know that 30 to 40 percent of the world's Jews were killed during World War II, but not that 80 to 90… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect… — Diane Ackerman Copy Share
![“[On gardens:] I think they're sanctuaries for the mind and spirit. ... It's easy to feel wonder-struck in a garden, especially if you cultivate delight.” quote by Diane Ackerman](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/3e4/diane-ackerman-1035_delight_on-gardens-i-think-they-re-sanctuaries-f_2000109.png)
![“How did he manage such feats of compassion while staying sane and creative? By stilling the mind and communing with nature: One hears the [Teaching's] voice from the world as a whole, from the chirping of the birds, the mooing of the cows, from the voices and tumult of human beings; from all these…” quote by Diane Ackerman](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/4b6/diane-ackerman-1035_compassion_how-did-he-manage-such-feats-of-compassi_2211087.png)
