Antonio Damasio Quotes

That's my mission: to make you feel something.

Many people do not distinguish between something that happens to them and their reaction to it. Yet it isn't the event or situation that holds the emotional charge; it's our beliefs that create our response.

It's not the events that shape my life that determine how I feel and act, but, rather, it's the way I interpret and evaluate my life experiences.

An obvious fact about negative feelings is often overlooked. They are caused by us, not by exterior happenings. An outside event presents the challenge, but we react to it. So we must attend to the way we take things, not to the things themselves.

Ordinarily pleasure and pain are regarded as different from sensations.

Remember that stress doesn't come from what's going on in your life. It comes from your thoughts about what's going on in your life.

Emotions come first, and in the most direct sense: you first have an emotion and then have a feeling. But also first in the history of the human race, for the ability to have emotions long preceded the ability to have feelings.

The problem is not what other people think, do or say; it is your reaction.

If this is how you’re going to react, I’ll freak out more often.

Onions can make even Heirs and Widows weep.

I have a sack of hate mail that I want to respond to. One day, when I’m tired or tipsy, I will respond and tell them what I think.

It's important to note that aggression isn't the problem. It's the outcome of a problem.

Your responses to the events of life are more important than the events themselves.

When I wake up, I'll read something and I'll feel angry. And then I'll calm down a little bit. I'll think about it. And then I'll tweet something that talks about the issue, and if I can inject some satire and humor, I'll try to do that.

So as I think back on it now, I think it is safe to say that music is something you both hear and feel. I also realize that feelings change frequently and that for the most part, they are not a constant. They change from high to low, happy to sad, content to ecstatic and back down again. Not all music has the same purpose, but most music makes you feel "something.

I think about quitting all the time. I'll take such a little thing and be like, "I quit! I've had enough of you people!" And then...I don't know, it gets better. I'm not really good at making plans so I don't have any definite plans for the future. I would love to have a family and kids at some point.

When someone has a very urgent response, I think it just means that it's triggering something in them that they may not necessarily want to think or talk about - which I see as a positive thing.

You can feel an emotion; just don't think that it's so important.

In a lot of things I'm reacting to a lot of things. I'm reacting to a lot people around me. Sometimes not necessarily saying anything but I just have to be thinking it.

Remember that stress doesn't come from what's going on in your life. It comes from your thoughts about what's going on in your life.

One of the findings that really interests me is that, although we think we ACT because of the way we FEEL, we often FEEL because of the way we ACT. So an almost uncanny way to change your feelings is to act the way you WISH you felt.

You have decided being scared is caused mostly by thinking.

The way sadness works is one of the strangest riddles of the world.

If you cannot accept an external event immediately, then some kind of resistance will come up. And there may be some external events you cannot accept at all.

I think that we have to consciously be aware that every moment we're in, every different stage in our lives, we can control.