24 Quotes by Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Oh comforting solitude, how favorable thou art to original thought!

Our novice runs the risk of failure without additional traits: a strong inclination toward originality, a taste for research, and a desire to experience the incomparable gratification associated with the act of discovery itself.

Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.

If a solution fails to appear ... and yet we feel success is just around the corner, try resting for a while. ... Like the early morning frost, this intellectual refreshment withers the parasitic and nasty vegetation that smothers the good seed. Bursting forth at last is the flower of truth.

As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the structure of the brain will also be a mystery.

Every man if he so desires becomes sculptor of his own brain.

Intellectual work is an act of creation. It is as if the mental image that is studied over a period of time were to sprout appendages like an ameba – outgrowths that extend in all directions while avoiding one obstacle after another – before interdigitating with related ideas.

In summary, all great work is the fruit of patience and perseverance, combined with tenacious concentration on a subject over a period of months or years.

Physical pain is easily forgotten, but a moral chagrin lasts indefinitely.