Daniel Levitin

No other species lives with regret over past events, or makes deliberate plans for future ones.

— Daniel Levitin

The processing capacity of the conscious mind has been estimated at 120 bits per second.

— Daniel Levitin

You're entitled your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts.

— Daniel Levitin

I became a cognitive psychologist because I met a bunch of teachers I really liked.

— Daniel Levitin

“During our leisure time, not counting work, each of us processes 34 gigabytes or 100,000 words every day.”

— Daniel Levitin

I've always been interested in peak performance, why some people do better in life than others.

— Daniel Levitin

We've always known that music is good for improving your mood.

— Daniel Levitin

The obvious rule of efficiency is you don't want to spend more time organizing than it's worth.

— Daniel Levitin

I believe in an informed electorate, and we need to teach our children to become informed enough to have opinions on world…

— Daniel Levitin

Our to-do lists are so full that we can't hope to complete every item on them. So what do we do? We…

— Daniel Levitin

In a country that was still racially segregated and prejudiced, music was among the first domains in which African-Americans thrived alongside whites.

— Daniel Levitin

When you're at work, be fully at work. And let your leisure time be what it's meant to be - restorative and…

— Daniel Levitin

When people silo themselves by belief, only affiliating with like-minded media organizations and people, we lose the opportunity for genuine conversation, much…

— Daniel Levitin

The most fundamental principle of the organized mind, the one most critical to keeping us from forgetting or losing things, is to…

— Daniel Levitin

Many people say some of their best ideas come from dreams. Arguably the greatest Beatles song, 'Yesterday,' came to Paul McCartney in…

— Daniel Levitin

Maybe instead of asking political candidates to submit tax returns, we really should be asking to see their brain scans.

— Daniel Levitin

We need to blinker ourselves, to better monitor our attentional focus. Enforced periods of no email or Internet to allow us to…

— Daniel Levitin

Workers in government, the arts, and industry report that the sheer volume of email they receive is overwhelming, taking a huge bite…

— Daniel Levitin

When do you suppose the electric guitar was invented? If you thought the 1950s, you'd be wrong. If you can muster a…

— Daniel Levitin

The conscious mind can only pay attention to about four things at once. If you've got these nagging voices in your head…

— Daniel Levitin

Although I don't know Paul McCartney, a mutual friend told me that Paul was reading my book, This Is Your Brain on…

— Daniel Levitin

Yes, there were piano bands and great rock pianists, from Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard to Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, and…

— Daniel Levitin

Critical thinking is not something you do once with an issue and then drop it. It requires that we update our knowledge…

— Daniel Levitin

As soon as you hear a proposition, the creative brain in humans assumes for the moment that it's true, and starts trying…

— Daniel Levitin

People are trying to build a society where they can talk across the aisle so to speak, and have civil discourse. At…

— Daniel Levitin

Although it is easier to find information these days, it is easier than ever before to find misinformation, pseudo-facts, unsupported and fringe…

— Daniel Levitin

The most important, the longest lasting, the strongest emotional, and the most practiced memories are the ones that are embedded the deepest…

— Daniel Levitin

The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated…

— Daniel Levitin

Most of what we know we don't really know first hand. I've never seen a cancer cell. But I trust this community…

— Daniel Levitin

The brain has an attentional mode called the "mind wandering mode" that was only recently identified. This is when thoughts move seamlessly…

— Daniel Levitin

Decision-making is difficult because, by its nature, it involves uncertainty. If there was no uncertainty, decisions would be easy! The uncertainty exists…

— Daniel Levitin

Our bodies like rhythm and our brains like melody and harmony.

— Daniel Levitin

Lies are an absence of facts and, in many cases, a direct contradiction of them.

— Daniel Levitin

Most jobs require some degree of creativity and flexible thinking.

— Daniel Levitin

We're not the best, but we happen to be what evolution came up with.

— Daniel Levitin

In order to understand one person speaking to us, we need to process 60 bits of information per second.

— Daniel Levitin

Information overload refers to the notion that we're trying to take in more than the brain can handle.

— Daniel Levitin

Evolution doesn't just look for things that are fun; if it did, we'd know how to fly.

— Daniel Levitin

Another possibility is that evolution selected creativity in general as a marker of sexual fitness.

— Daniel Levitin

I'm not a great guitarist, and I'm not a great singer.

— Daniel Levitin