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 amebaโoutgrowths that extend in all directions while avoiding one obstacle after anotherโbefore interdigitating with related ideas.
Santiago Ramon y CajalIn 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.
Santiago Ramon y CajalIf 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.
Santiago Ramon y CajalIntellectual 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 amebaโoutgrowths that extend in all directions while avoiding one obstacle after anotherโbefore interdigitating with related ideas.
Santiago Ramon y CajalUnfortunately, nature seems unaware of our intellectual need for convenience and unity, and very often takes delight in complication and diversity.
Santiago Ramon y CajalIn my own view, some advice about what should be known, about what technical education should be acquired, about the intense motivation needed to succeed, and about the carelessness and inclination toward bias that must be avoided is far more useful than all the rules and warnings of theoretical logic.
Santiago Ramon y CajalIf a photographic plate under the center of a lens focused on the heavens is exposed for hours, it comes to reveal stars so far away that even the most powerful telescopes fail to reveal them to the naked eye. In a similar way, time and concentration allow the intellect to perceive a ray of light in the darkness of the most complex problem.
Santiago Ramon y Cajal