Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Unfortunately, nature seems unaware of our intellectual need for convenience and unity, and very often takes delight in complication and diversity.

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

It is notorious that the desire to live increases as life itself shortens.

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

That which enters the mind through reason can be corrected. That which is admitted through faith, hardly ever.

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

“consider the possibility that any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain, and that even…

— Santiago Ramón y Cajal

I would be the last to deny that the greatest scientific pioneers belonged to an aristocracy of the spirit and were exceptionally…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

The worst part is not in making a mistake but in trying to justify it, instead of using it as a heaven-sent…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

“It is fair to say that, in general, no problems have been exhausted; instead, men have been exhausted by the problems”

— Santiago Ramón y Cajal

The brain is a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and great stretches of unknown territory.

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

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

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

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

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Intellectual beauty is sufficient unto itself, and only for it rather than for the future good of humanity does the scholar condemn…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

In adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated.

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

“The indescribable pleasure—which pales the rest of life's joys—is abundant compensation for the investigator who endures the painful and persevering analytical work…

— Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Buffon said unreservedly, "Genius is simply patience carried to the extreme." To those who asked how he achieved fame he replied: "By…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

In the study of this membrane [the retina] I for the first time felt my faith in Darwinism (hypothesis of natural selection)…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

“All outstanding work, in art as well as in science, results from immense zeal applied to a great idea.”

— Santiago Ramón y Cajal

To know the brain...is equivalent to ascertaining the material course of thought and will, to discovering the intimate history of life in…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

“The mediocre can be educated; geniuses educate themselves.”

— Santiago Ramón y Cajal

“Perseverance is a virtue of the less brilliant.”

— Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Even granting that the genius subjected to the test of critical inspection emerges free from all error, we should consider that everything…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Like the entomologist in search of colorful butterflies, my attention has chased in the gardens of the grey matter cells with delicate…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

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

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

In my own view, some advice about what should be known, about what technical education should be acquired, about the intense motivation…

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal

“It is important to realize that if certain areas of science appear to be quite mature, others are in the process of…

— Santiago Ramón y Cajal

What a cruel irony of fate, to pair together, like Siamese twins united by the shoulders, scientific adversaries of such contrasting character!

— Santiago Ramon y Cajal