Annie Dillard Quotes

Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory.

Thinking has become a superfluous exercise... purely internal, without compelling force, more or less a game.

What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.

I like the cerebral process.

Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork - reading, writing, thinking - can.

Miss Searle had always considered boredom an intellectual defeat.

What makes me happy is just keeping my brain challenged and stimulated and on its toes.

The only recreation there allowed, however, is that of the mind, and of this there is but little.

Focusing isn't just an optical activity, it is also a mental one.

Thought once awakened does not again slumber.

I think I was just constantly seeking mental stimulation from anything I could get.

To know, to think, to dream. That is everything.

Strictly speaking, you don't think: Thinking happens to you.

Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking. Little manifestations of energy through the muscles are called work. But where there is no thought, there will be no work. Fill the brain, therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work.

Brain: an apparatus with which we think that we think. Mind, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain.

You can't think of nothing.

We havent really paid much attention to thought as a process. we have engaged in thoughts, but we have only paid attention to the content, not to the process.

For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.

You have to do something when you're lying in bed. So you play with your mind.

A thought is an idea in transit.

I obtain great satisfaction out of using my intellect.

One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.

To live is to think.

Knowledge is the life of the mind.

I think it's good to stimulate your mind.