Flowers for Algernon

Excerpt from Flowers for Algernon that I wanted to remember:

“August 11 - Blind alley for the past two days. Nothing. I’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere, because I get answers to a lot of questions, but not to the most important question of all: How does Algernon’s regression affect the basic hypothesis of the experiment?

Fortunately, I know enough about the processes of the mind not to let this block worry me too much. Instead of panicking and giving up (or what’s even worse, pushing hard for answers that won’t come) I’ve got to take my mind off the problem for a while and let it stew. I’ve gone as far as I can on a conscious level, and now it’s up to those mysterious operations below the level of awareness. It’s one of those inexplicable things, how everything I’ve learned and experienced is brought to bear on the problem. Pushing too hard will only make things freeze up. How many great problems have gone unsolved because men didn’t know enough, or have enough faith in the creative process and in themselves, to let go for the whole mind to work at it?”