Pour some water into a tub and stir it up. Now try as hard as you can to calm the water with your hands; you will succeed in agitating it further. Let it stand undisturbed a while, and it will calm down by itself. The human brain works much the same way. – Koichi Tohei, Ki in Daily Life

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun with nettles. – Horace Walpole, letter to the Countess of Ailesbury, 1779 July 10th

Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles. – Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, 1820