George Combe Quotes

Your mind burns a lot of calories. Writing can feel like a physical workout.

Much as I loved doing 'The Big Breakfast,' it almost became automatic. I need something to keep my brain ticking over, something that I have to concentrate on.

There's no such thing as downtime for your brain.

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

I have an overactive brain, and as a result of that, I can really get in my own mind. So I like to try and exercise it to the point of exhaustion.

To begin with, you must realize that any idea accepted by the brain is automatically transformed into an action of some sort. It may take seconds or minutes or longer - but ideas always produce a reaction of some sort.

If little else, the brain is an educational toy.

Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery - it recharges by running.

What it turns out is that we think we're multitasking, but we're not. The brain is sequential tasking: we flit from one thought to the next very, very rapidly, giving us the illusion that what we're doing is doing all these things at once.

If you're studying from a book and trying to listen in on a conversation at the same time, those are two separate projects, each started and maintained by distinct circuits in the brain. Pay more attention to one for a moment and you're automatically paying less attention to the other.

The TT taxes your mind.

To most people, nothing is more troublesome than the effort of thinking.

Thinking is difficult and sometimes unpleasant.

When we are forced to do multiple things at once, not only do we perform worse on all of them but our memory decreases and our general well-being suffers a palpable hit.

I'm sure our brains are working unconsciously. When you have a creative thought, it's parts of the brain talking to each other without your awareness.

Reading requires the brain to rearrange its original parts to learn something new.

I'm 57 years old, and I host a quiz show every single day. I got asked in a recent interview, did I feel that hosting a quiz show helps keep my brain sharp? And I asked - would you ask Stephen Fry that question, who is exactly the same age as me? Somehow, I'm managing to stand up and stay cogent despite my incredible age.

I think of the brain as a computational device: It has a bunch of little components that perform calculations on some small aspect of the problem, and another part of the brain has to stitch it all together, like a tapestry or a quilt.

When we have any function, whether it's language or vision or cognitive functions like memory, we aren't dealing with a straight line to the brain that says 'This is what I do.' The brain builds a network of connections, a network of neurons that have a particular role in that function.

Everything with Peeping Tom is kind of a guessing game. It's constantly exhilarating but also exhausting.

A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using and tiring it, just in the same way he can wear out the elbows of his coat.

I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for

Multitasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus.

If they don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working.

People think I watch TV too much, but they are wrong. There is a huge difference between merely "watching" TV and learning to respond aggressively to it. The difference, for most people, is the difference between the living and dying of their own brains.