Mankind has survived all catastrophes. It will also survive modern medicine.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
—Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English Nurse
God heals and the doctor takes the fee.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Medicines are only fit for old people.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
A dose of adversity is often as needful as a dose of medicine.
—Common Proverb
He has been a doctor a year now and has had two patients, no, three, I think—yes, it was three; I attended their funerals.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I have noticed that doctors who fail in the practice of medicine have a tendency to seek one another’s company and aid in consultation. A doctor who cannot take out your appendix properly will recommend you to a doctor who will be unable to remove your tonsils with success.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
A good night’s sleep, or a ten-minute brawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man’s body.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
The doctor learns that if he gets ahead of the superstitions of his patients he is a ruined man; and the result is that he instinctively takes care not to get ahead of them.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The doctor knows what his trained eyes see—and he says it’s the last of the ninth for me. So one more thing while the clouds loom dark and then I must leave this noisy park.
—Unknown
Laughter is the best medicine.
—Common Proverb
The disease and its medicine are like two factions in a besieged town; they tear one another to pieces, but both unite against their common enemy, Nature.
—Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773–1850) Scottish Judge, Literary Critic
The difference between an itch and an allergy is about one hundred bucks.
—Unknown
Medicine knows no limits, especially not its own.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war.
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902) British Victorian Novelist, Essayist, Critic
Failure to examine the throat is a glaring sin of omission, especially in children. One finger in the throat and one in the rectum makes a good diagnostician.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
There is no medicine like hope, no incentives so great, and no tonics so powerful as the expectation of something better tomorrow.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Physic is, for the most part, only a substitute for temperance and exercise.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
We seem ambitious God’s whole work to undo.—With new diseases on ourselves we war, and with new physic, a worse engine far.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Desperate maladies require desperate remedies.
—French Proverb
Quackery has no friend like gullibility.
—Common Proverb
Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
The only way to treat the common cold is with contempt.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
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