“Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.”
— Santiago Ramón y Cajal
From Cajal's book Consejos a un joven investigador (Advice for a Young Investigator), 1897. Based on his discovery that neural connections change through effort.
My father wanted me to be a doctor. I wanted to draw. He put me with a barber. Then a cobbler. Then he dragged me into a dissecting room. I hated it. But one day, looking through a microscope, I saw the cells of the brain, and I drew them. It turned out I could be both. The brain is not fixed at birth. It changes with every effort you make. I proved this under a microscope. You prove it every time you refuse to stop. Pick up your chisel.