Brain Chemistry Quotes

“How could she be anxious when everything was so cheerful? Very easily, as it happens. Brain chemistry doesn’t care about how pretty things are.”
― Maureen Johnson, Truly, Devious

“Chemistry is not destiny, certainly. But these scientists have demonstrated that the most reliable way to produce an adult who is brave and curious and kind and prudent is to ensure that when he is an infant, his hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functions well. And how do you do that? It is not magic. First, as much as possible, you protect him from serious trauma and chronic stress; then, even more important, you provide him with a secure, nurturing relationship with at least one parent and ideally two. That's not the whole secret of success, but it is a big, big part of it.”
― Paul Tough, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

“Angelo," he said, and felt the bed rock as Angelo shuddered, caught halfway between REM atonia - the inhibition of movement caused by the shutdown of monoamines in the brain - and waking.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Carnival

“If you sneer at religion as the opiate of the masses, you must sneer also at the brain, because the receptors are there. You must sneer at the body, which knows how to feel that bliss. What I mean is, a sweet look of lying down in poppy fields, of feeling control finally by giving over control, a look of wild and then tame relinquishment.”
― Patricia Lockwood, Priestdaddy

“The Biochemistry Sonnet

Chemicals breed prejudice,
Chemicals breed love.
Chemicals breed hate and rage,
Chemicals breed the atoning dove.
Chemicals breed walls of divide,
Chemicals breed the bridge to unite.
Chemicals breed death and disease,
In those very chemicals we find sight.
Chemicals are us, we are the chemicals,
In this mortal world there is nothing else.
While most are run by the whim of chemicals,
Some bend chemicals at will, as true sapiens.
Chemicals are the cause, chemicals are the result.
Awareness of chemicals is awareness of the world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“I’m euphoric with dopamine when I think of you. My infatuation with the memory of your face has flooded my neurons with Serotonin. My restless need to be with you has thrown in some norepinephrine. I’m a chemical basket case. But since I refuse to blame you, I’ve decided to blame my brain. Maybe if I believe I’ve reversed cause and effect I’ll get better.”
― E.L. Neve, Looking Glass Friends