As followers of natural science we know nothing of any relation between thoughts and the brain, except as a gross correlation in time and space.
Charles Scott SherringtonRead
The brain seems a thoroughfare for nerve-action passing its way to the motor animal. It has been remarked that Life's aim is an act not a thought. To-day the dictum must be modified to admit that, often, to refrain from an act is no less an act than to commit one, because inhibition is coequally with excitation a nervous activity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life's purpose involves both action and restraint, as both require conscious decisions.
Charles Scott Sherrington's quote highlights the complexity of life, emphasizing that both action and inhibition are equally significant in our nervous system and existence. He suggests that not acting is as much a decision as taking action, underscoring a deeper understanding of life's dynamics and the choices we face.
Themes
LifeActionInhibitionNervous SystemDecisionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about decision-making in leadership, this quote can illustrate the importance of both action and restraint.
More from Charles Scott Sherrington
All quotes →Similar quotes
The line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive.
AristotleRead
Once lead this people into war, and they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life, infecting Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street.
Woodrow WilsonRead
But guilt is guilt. It doesn't go away. It can't be nullified. It can't even be fully understood, I'm certain - it's roots run too deep into private and long-standing karma. About the only thing that saves my neck when I get to feeling this way is that guilt is an imperfect form of knowledge. Just because it isn't perfect doesn't mean that it can't be used. The hard thing to do is to put it to practical use, before it gets around to paralyzing you.
J. D. SalingerRead
If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply, the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
The devil's most devilish when respectable.
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningRead
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
Karl MarxRead