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

“It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very very obvious, as in "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die."His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably shriveled up.After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this--"If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working.”

“He smiled at me. “Have a good time.” “Thank you.” The music was definitely working, I thought as I started to shut the door.“Don’t get laid,” he added.”

“Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.”

“If you keep all those thoughts inside, your brain will explode.”

“The palace started as a single vaulted room and grew in proportion to my despair. It began as an exercise to keep my mind from its melancholy, then it became a dream and a necessity. . . . I built a temple in my head. . . . Its hallways were as lofty as a cathedral, and the arch of each window as supple as a bow. Its corridors were the passages of my own brain.”