The 70 best phrases of Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Santiago Ramón y Cajal He was a famous Spanish doctor born in the town of Petilla de Aragón, during the year 1852.

Commonly known as the father of neuroscience, Ramón y Cajal developed numerous experiments throughout his life, which made him an eminence of his time.

• We suggest you read: "60 phrases by José Ortega y Gasset to understand his philosophy"

Phrases and reflections by Ramón y Cajal

Although many of us have heard some of his phrases quoted on numerous occasions, we may not know much about him.

A fact that will undoubtedly change from this moment on, because below you can discover the 70 best phrases of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, one of the most relevant doctors from Spanish medicine.

1. Vanity haunts us even on our deathbed. We endure it with fortitude because we want to overcome its terrible greatness and captivate the admiration of the spectators.

If we want to be more successful, we must learn to be humble, as this quality will help us to show a better version of ourselves.

2. As long as the brain is a mystery, the universe will continue to be a mystery.

The brain is the most mysterious organ that the human being possesses, the great mysteries that it contained always caused Ramón y Cajal a great interest.

3. Neurons are like mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose beating of wings who knows if one day will unravel the secret of mental life.

How the neural network of a person works was at that time a mystery, because today scientists have not yet discovered all its ins and outs.

4. Nothing inspires me more awe and awe than an old man who knows how to change his mind.

Knowing how to change your mind shows great mental acuity on our part, since only the ignorant have totally irrefutable fixed ideas.

5. In brooding over the limitations of the human spirit sit something like the dejection of a dethroned king, the nostalgia and the fainting of a haunted and imprisoned eagle.

Human beings are imperfect, but these certain imperfections can also be what allow us to differentiate ourselves from each other.

6. At the bottom of every youthful head there is a perfect anarchist and communist.

Young people tend to fall prey easily to ideas with leftist overtones, something that is very understandable since virtually that speech seems to favor their lifestyle.

7. Even in the most perfect sciences some doctrine exclusively maintained by the principle of authority never fails to be found.

He who holds power does with him what he wants, favoring those issues that personally interest him the most.

8. We complain about friends because we demand more of them than they can give.

We should not be too demanding with our friends, it is not worth losing them for things that are not strictly necessary.

9. Reasoning and convincing, how difficult, long and laborious! Influence? How easy, fast and cheap!

Being able to make a person understand your point of view can be a more complicated task than we think. For the ignorant will never recognize that he is not in the power of reason.

10. Of all the possible reactions to injury, the most skillful and economical is silence.

What others think of us does not have to affect us if it really is not true, because our life does not have to change because of it.

11. It is difficult to be a good friend of the friends, without being something enemy of the fairness.

We must take care of our friends if we want to keep them. Our friendships can be a good foothold for any of us.

12. The old man tends to judge today with yesterday's criteria.

Life changes and society changes with it. Well, as it was thought in the past, it has nothing to do with how it is thought today. If we do not adapt to this change, we very possibly suffer bad experiences.

13. There is a fruitless and vain patriotism: The one oriented towards the past. Another strong and active one: The one oriented towards the future. Between preparing a germ and gilding a skeleton, who will doubt?

Nationalisms are never positive, since politics should always look out for the interests of all citizens as a whole.

14. Don't you have enemies? Did you never tell the truth or never love justice?

Having enemies is the most common thing in the world, because being ourselves sooner or later we will find them.

15. There are few bonds of friendship so strong that they cannot be cut by a woman's hair.

Fights over a certain woman have been going on since the beginning of time. Not surprisingly, Troy burned for the love of a woman.

16. In the social machine you have to be a motor, not a wheel, a personality, not a person.

We must never let ourselves be trampled on, we are capable of making everything we dream of come true.

17. In politics, every fool is dangerous as long as he does not demonstrate his innocuousness with facts.

Those who are dedicated to politics must always prove their worth, because a bad manager can really do a lot of damage to the economy of a country.

18. Beauty is a letter of recommendation written by God.

Being beautiful people can open many doors for us, but if we are not really worth it, those doors will eventually close.

19. Problems that seem small are big problems that are not yet understood.

A problem may be much bigger than imagined, but we may only realize it when we delve into it.

20. Ideas do not last long. You have to do something with them.

Whenever we have a good idea we should try to exploit it, because you never know how many good ideas you will have throughout your life.

21. I am proud that I have never been among the special clientele of bullfighting.

Bullfighting was never to the liking of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, an ancient practice that many people currently think about should stop being carried out.

22. I reserve the right to think according to my current ideas.

Being consistent with our ideas can be something that will allow us to live life under our own standards.

23. Infinite classes of fools are known; the most deplorable is that of the talkative bent on showing that they have talent.

Talking a lot does not mean being intelligent, in most cases it is quite the opposite.

24. The angry jealousy of some women means, rather than the fear of losing a lover, the suspicion that a pocket will be closed.

People are often driven by pure interest, whether they are men or women. In this specific appointment, Cajal tells us about the interested attitude that the female gender commonly showed in those times.

25. The so-called class or body spirit ordinarily overlaps a refined selfishness. Every union of honor constitutes in reality a trust for the exploitation of others.

We are all part of the same society and for it to work, we must all do the same on our part.

26. The chariot of Spanish culture is missing the wheel of science.

Science in those times did not have the funds it needed to be able to develop, a fact that with the passage of time changed within the Spanish nation.

27. Avoid the conversation of those people whose word, instead of being work, is pleasure. The great talkers are usually refined selfish spirits, who seek our treatment, not to strengthen sentimental ties, but to be admired and applauded.

There have always been people who have sought to take shelter in the shadow of a much more successful person, because as the saying goes: Whoever gets close to a good tree, a good shade shelters him.

28. Friends, like teeth, we lose over the years, not always without pain.

We will lose many of our friends over the years, since real friends are usually really difficult to find.

29. Only the doctor and the playwright have the rare privilege of receiving the troubles they give us.

A great truth that many of us surely had never thought about, as this shows us, doctors often charge for giving us bad news.

30. It has been said many times that the problem of Spain is a problem of culture. Indeed, if we want to join civilized peoples, it is urgent to intensely cultivate the wastelands of our land and of our brains, saving for the prosperity and national exaltation all the rivers that are lost in the sea and all the talents that are lost in the ignorance.

The Spain of the nineteenth century was populated mostly by illiterates, compulsory education for children of any social class, would not arrive until the middle of the twentieth century.

31. Either you have many ideas and few friends, or many friends and few ideas.

Our ideas can sow discord among our friends, but if a friendship is strong enough, it will certainly bear the weight of any disagreements that may arise between us.

32. Fortunately, in most cases, the wife gets used to her husband, as he gets used to beer or tobacco.

Marriage was formerly seen as a forced step in life that we all had to go through, luckily today's society is not so blunt in this particular aspect.

33. Far from beating down the novice researcher before the great authorities of Science, he must know that their destiny, by cruel but inescapable law, is to grow a little at the expense of their reputations.

Those who made great discoveries in another time can teach us the way to success. As Isaac Newton said: If I could see further than others it was because I got on the shoulders of giants. A quote that made reference to all those great geniuses of antiquity who inspired him.

34. The most ignorant and rustic of women can beget a man of genius.

All men and women have the same qualities, but some of us learn over time to exploit them to a greater extent.

35. Nothing more radically unfair than the father of the family. He forgives everything in order to favor his children.

Every father will always support his son regardless of what he really deserves, blood is one of the strongest bonding factors that exists.

36. Friendship repels poverty and pain, as darkness and rarefied air plants it. If you want to keep friends, hide your hardships and sorrows from them.

It is in adversity when we discover which of our friends really are, because when we go through a good situation, people with interested attitudes will always come out of any place.

37. Here is an evidence that is also a norm; the only tonics of the will are truth and justice.

The truth should be a constant in our life, with it we will all be able to lead the life we ​​really deserve.

38. Glory, in truth, is nothing more than a postponed oblivion.

As time goes by, we will all be forgotten, but if we are very successful in our work, our possible forgetfulness can take much longer to arrive.

39. Avoid rich and foolish friends and protectors. As soon as you try them, you will find yourself turned into their scribe or their lackey.

We must never submit to the interests of others, our own will must always be the only thing that can move us.

40. The weak succumb, not because they are weak, but because they ignore that they are. The same happens to nations.

Our social position is very important, because if we do not have a certain level, any misfortune that may happen to us will end us very quickly.

41. It costs no one more than the one who greatly desires.

Knowing how to differentiate between what desires we should pursue and which ones we shouldn't, can be a personal key to our future happiness.

42. It is strange to see how the population, which feeds your imagination with tales of witches or saints, mysterious events and events extraordinary, despises the world around him as something common, monotonous and prosaic, without suspecting that deep down everything is secret, mystery and Marvel.

The world is complicated enough without taking into account fantasies such as fairies or monsters, since men actually do not know a large part of the universe that surrounds us.

43. The student is the one who leads others to what he has understood.

Sharing with others that interesting information that we have, it may be something that also helps them in their own lives.

44. It is common for the vain and presumptuous to pretend to have what they want.

Nobody has everything they want and whoever says otherwise is actually very likely lying to us.

45. The art of living a lot is resigned to living little by little.

In life there is time for everything, we should never rush in making our decisions.

46. As there are talents in the studio, there are fools stupid by disuse.

Education is a fundamental aspect in the life of any person, because a person who has not been educated, will never develop the maximum intellectual potential of it.

47. Move away progressively, without violent ruptures from the friend for whom you represent a means instead of being an end.

Some of our so-called friends will try to use us throughout our lives, all of us should learn to read between the lines so that this does not happen to us.

48. Sympathy is very often a sentimental prejudice based on the idea that the face is the mirror of the soul. Unfortunately, the face is almost always a mask.

Beauty is not everything in life, because we should all know that the toxicity of a person and the physical aspect of him, do not always go hand in hand.

49. Ideas are not shown to be fertile with those who suggest or apply them for the first time, but with the tenacious who feel them vehemently and in whose virtuality they put all their faith and all their love. Under this aspect, it can well be affirmed that scientific conquests are creations of the will and offerings of passion.

Every great discovery always has a remarkable work behind it, because like great artistic works, they never appear out of nowhere.

50. Man is a social being whose intelligence demands to be excited by the rumor of the hive.

Human beings are much more powerful when we come together as a group. The society in which we all live today is a logical response of the human being to the adversities that beset him.

51. The truth is a corrosive acid that splashes almost always to the one who handles it.

Although the truth may harm us momentarily, in the end it will help us to live in a much more dignified way and more coherent with our own thoughts.

52. The worst thing is not to make a mistake, but to try to justify it, instead of taking advantage of it as a providential warning of our lightness or ignorance.

Mistakes help us to improve as individuals, thanks to them we will be a better and much more complete person tomorrow.

53. Every man can be, if he wants to, a sculptor of his own brain.

We all have the ability to educate ourselves in order to improve our intellectual level, but it will depend on us whether or not we put this fact into practice.

54. Perseverance is one of the less brilliant virtues.

Although we are not very bright people, with perseverance and dedication we will achieve everything we set out to do.

55. It is important to realize that if certain areas of science appear to be quite mature, others are in the process of development and others are yet to be born.

Science over time develops new ramifications, some of which in the time of Ramón y Cajal were completely new.

56. The mediocre can be polite; geniuses educate themselves.

This quote shows us where the difference lies between people with more normal intellectual levels and true geniuses.

57. All outstanding work, both in art and science, results from the immense zeal applied to a great idea.

The development of an idea always takes time, only by being persistent will we be able to carry it out.

58. It is fair to say that, in general, the problems have not been exhausted; instead, men have been exhausted by problems.

The human being always encounters new problems in his development, a constant that does not seem to change over the years.

59. Little is enough every day if every day we achieve that little.

A very successful quote that encourages us to be more constant in our daily work.

60. Lazy brain cells only shine their light under the whip of painful emotions.

The most difficult situations we go through may be the ones that inspire us the most throughout our lives.

61. The woman is like the soldier's backpack.

During a war, the memory of our loved ones will be what propels us towards battle.

62. The one who takes things as a joke is always defeated by the one who takes them seriously.

Some aspects of life seem unimportant, but it is quite possible that we are actually totally wrong.

63. Chance does not smile on the one who wants it, but on the one who deserves it.

Coincidences will never find us if we are not working, just staying at the foot of the canyon, our luck will finally change.

64. Men fight to acquire a piece of land to be prematurely buried.

Wars should not be waged under any circumstances, for nothing is worth as much as a person's life.

65. The timely erudition that seduces us so much in certain very good conversationalists is often nothing but the subtle art of taking the interlocutor to the terrain of recent readings.

Reading is a very interesting activity, practicing it can bring us great benefits both in our personal life and in our work.

66. It has been said many times that business is other people's money. In the same way it could be affirmed that power and happiness are the misfortune and anguish of others.

Money and power can bring us serious personal problems, because as they say: perhaps all that glitters is not gold.

67. My contradictions! I wish they were older! This would be an indication of youth, flexibility and strength. We change with the years and the readings. And not just in succession, but simultaneously. (…) Parodying Descartes, I would say: 'I vary, therefore I exist'.

Over time we will all be less inclined to change our ideas, a clear sign that our old age is approaching.

68. Excessive saving rapidly declines towards stinginess, falling into the exaggeration of being considered superfluous even what is necessary.

We must enjoy life fully and for this the use of money is something totally mandatory. The money we keep will not accompany us after we die.

69. One of the misfortunes of our country consists, as has been said many times, in that the individual interest ignores the collective interest.

Society will only be able to evolve when the collective interest fully prevails in it.

70. You are of little value if your death is desired by many people.

If many people wish our evil, in the end their wish will come true. We must make sure that the people around us are completely honest with us.