Physician, heal thyself.
—Hebrew Proverb
Time is generally the best doctor.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
The relation nurse/doctor is even more complex than the relation patient/doctor.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines—so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
A great doctor kills more people than a great general.
—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) German Rationalist Philosopher, Mathematician
He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
One of the fundamental reasons why so many doctors become cynical and disillusioned is precisely because, when the abstract idealism has worn thin, they are uncertain about the value of the actual lives of the patients they are treating. This is not because they are callous or personally inhuman: it is because they live in and accept a society which is incapable of knowing what a human life is worth.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Cure the disease and kill the patient.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The doctors take the bodily evidence as the disease. . . . disease is itself an impudent opinion. He throws off the feelings of the sick and imparts to them his own which are perfect health, and his explanation destroys their feelings or disease. . . . He is like a captain who knows his business and feels confident in a storm, and his confidence sustains the crew and ship when both would be lost if the captain should give way to his fears.
—Phineas Quimby (1802–66) American Philosopher, Healer
The best doctor is the one you run to and can’t find.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
Tidy fees are the most effective remedy, both for the doctor and the patient.
—Dario Fo (1926–2016) Italian Playwright, Actor
The first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
Never ask a surgeon whether you need an operation.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
A minor operation is one that is done on someone else.
—Richard Selzer (1928–2016) American Surgeon, Writer
When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Life is short, the art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult.
—Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) Ancient Greek Physician
It is the duty of a doctor to prolong life and it is not his duty to prolong the act of dying.
—Thomas Horder, 1st Baron Horder (1871–1955) British Physician
Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.
—Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian Short-Story Writer
The mistakes made by doctors are innumerable. They err habitually on the side of optimism as to treatment, of pessimism as to the outcome.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
There are more old drunkards than old physicians.
—Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist
God heals and the doctor takes the fee.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.
—Matthew Prior (1664–1721) English Poet, Diplomat
Instead of wishing to see more doctors made by women joining what there are, I wish to see as few doctors, either male or female, as possible. For, mark you, the women have made no improvement—they have only tried to be “men” and they have only succeeded in being third-rate men.
—Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English Nurse
Temperance and labor are the two best physicians of man; labor sharpens the appetite, and temperance prevents from indulging to excess.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
The doctor should be opaque to his patients and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Is my dentist not bound by the Geneva Convention?
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
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
The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation soars even amongst powerful princes.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
If the doctor cures, the sun sees it; if he kills, the earth hides it.
—Scottish Proverb
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