Firing a machine gun at the tide

Introspection is very useful, to a point. Then you just have to get off your butt and do something, even if you don’t have all the answers or details. This is why a determined simple-minded person can often get more done than the next guy who may be quite a bit smarter. I’m preaching to myself here – on who is not stranger to lacking brains AND motivational energy.

Psychoanalysis is good at explaining things, but it is not an efficient way to change them. When I hear of psychoanalysis being used to ameliorate depression, I think of someone standing on a sandbar and firing a machine gun at the incoming tide.

-Andrew Solomon, Quoted by Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me, p.267