To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future. And we need freedom (or, at least, the illusion of freedom) to get beyond ourselves, whether with telescopes and microscopes and our ever-burgeoning technology, or in states of mind that allow us to travel to other worlds, to rise above our immediate surroundings.We may seek, too, a relaxing of inhibitions that makes it easier to bond with each other, or transports that make our consciousness of time and mortality easier to bear. We seek a holiday from our inner and outer restrictions, a more intense sense of the here and now, the beauty and value of the world we live in.

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About Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks was a 20th-century British neurologist and writer. Oliver Wolf Sacks was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Freedom — The value of liberty, independence, and self-determination
  • Hope — Words of encouragement about optimism and brighter futures
  • Life — Reflections on the meaning, challenges, and beauty of life

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