Mental Breakthrough Quotes

Is there no way out of the mind?

[T]he years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels, but cannot express; the intense desire and the alternations of confidence and misgiving, until one breaks through to clarity and understanding, are only known to him who has himself experienced them.

Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through.

A single idea, if it is right, saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences.

You've been thinking about something without willing to for a long time...Then, all of a sudden, the problem is opened to you in a flash and you suddenly see the answer.

That was like the moment of revelation for me that in fact we are not the lunatic fringe.

Basically, for me the psychedelic experience was the path to revelation. It actually worked on somebody who thought nothing would work.

Often when works at a hard question, nothing good is accomplished at the first attack. Then one takes a rest, long or short, and sits down anew to the work. During the first half-hour, as before, nothing is found, and then all of a sudden the decisive idea presents itself to the mind.

In the inner city, there's a mentality that the government owes you something. My breakthrough came when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took responsibility for every part of my life. No more pity parties. I've gotta love me more than anybody else loves me.

'Confusion is the last stop on the way to clarity,' he told me. 'The part of your mind that thinks it knows it all is butting up against a bigger idea. It's only a matter of time until the smaller thought gives way to the greater. Don't fight it. Just try to enjoy the ride.'

Usually my 'a-ha' moments are when I'm not trying to think of how to solve a particular problem.

One of the strongest feelings you can get in life--one of the most rewarding feelings--is the feeling of an "Aha, I finally understand."

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.

I think that I'm so psychotic and so mentally ill that if I could tap into that I could do something really interesting.

Yet, even now, ever time (often) that I find that I don't understand something, then instinctively, I'm filled with the hope that perhaps this will be my moment again, perhaps once again I shall understand nothing, I shall grasp that other knowledge, found and lost in an instant.

Normally the lightbulb moments only happen after 16-hour days, lots of cups of tea and a bit of weeping.

Just when I thought there wasn't room enough for another thought in my head, I had this great idea—

It's always a mystery to me, I have to confess. I've never been able to witness the birth of an idea. It seems as if one second, there's nothing particularly going on, and the next second, something is there.

One travels to escape from it all, but that is the great illusion: It cannot be done, since one travels with one's mind.

Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.

Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what's wrong with it.