“Rituals help us change modes.”

“To me, the persistence of my grandfather's rituals meant that he was unchanged, running on discipline and continuance and stoicism. I didn't notice, and didn't realize, that the rituals themselves were changing, that there was a difference between the rituals of comfort and the preventive rituals that come at the end of life.”

“Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”

“Even though He wants our help, values our help, and calls for our help in changing the world, our all-powerful God is not helpless - even without us.”

“No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.”

“The brain is a far more open system than we ever imagined, and nature has gone very far to help us perceive and take in the world around us. It has given us a brain that survives in a changing world by changing itself.”