“We’re not feeling edgy; the system is feeling nervous.”

“For me there is something primitively soothing about this music, and it went straight to my nervous system, making me feel ten feet tall.”

“When you feel nervous, recall your pride.”

“The purpose of the nervous system is to organize chaos.”

“A consequentialist or utilitarian is likely to approach the abortion question in a very different way, by trying to weigh up suffering. Does the embryo suffer? (Presumably not if it is aborted before it has a nervous system; and even if it is old enough to have a nervous system it surely suffers less than, say, an adult cow in a slaughterhouse.) Does the pregnant woman, or her family, suffer if she does not have an abortion? Very possibly so; and, in any case, given that the embryo lacks a nervous system, shouldn't the mother's well-developed nervous system have the choice?”

“Judi, a person’s worth isn’t measured by her utility. We’re not tools. We’re here to think. To feel. To be good to each other”