John Eccles

“I am passionately devoted to the study of life, and particularly to the higher forms of life.”

“How we come to be, and how we are what we are, is beyond any understanding. I have been obsessed by this, trying to understand the very nature of my existence.”

“The origin of each of us stems from codes of genetic inheritance.”

“I, at the age of 17 or 18 as a medical student, suddenly came up against a problem: 'What am I? What is the meaning of my existence as I experience it?'”

“England was a delightful and stimulating place for a young academic, although by present standards, the laboratory facilities were primitive. There were almost no research grants and no secretarial assistance, even for Sherrington.”

“Changes in relative ionic concentration across the postsynaptic membrane are readily effected by altering the ionic composition of the external medium.”

“I came to realise that Darwinian evolution had no explanation of me as an experiencing self.”

“We and our fellow men of all countries must realize that we share this wonderful, beautiful, salubrious earth as brothers and that there never will be anywhere else to go.”

“Many people, including myself, had our scientific lives changed by the inspiring new vision of science that Popper gave us.”

“A board constituted as the board of Sydney Hospital is constituted is not a suitable body to have control of an institute of medical research.”

“I can explain my body and my brain, but there's something more. I can't explain my own existence - what makes me a unique human being.”

“To the extent that we have a better understanding of the brain, we will have a richer appreciation of ourselves, of our fellow men and of society and, in fact, of the whole world and its problems.”

“I decided, as a medical student, to devote myself to a study of the brain.”

“To the brains of our predecessors we owe all of our inheritance of civilization and culture.”

“The body and dendrites of a nerve cell are specialized for the reception and integration of information which is conveyed as impulses that are fired from other nerve cells along their axons.”

“Brain research is the ultimate problem confronting man.”