I had never thought about what it might mean to be deaf, to be deprived of language, or to have a remarkable language (and community and culture) of oneโs own. Up to this point, I had mostly thought and written about the problems of individualsโhere I was to encounter an entire community.
Oliver SacksNature gropes and blunders and performs the crudest acts. There is no steady advance upward. There is no design.
Oliver SacksI was fascinated that one could have such perceptual changes, and also that they went with a certain feeling of significance, an almost numinous feeling. I'm strongly atheist by disposition, but nonetheless when this happened, I couldn't help thinking, 'That must be what the hand of God is like.'
Oliver SacksIf a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a selfโhimselfโhe cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.
Oliver Sacks