He who lives by medical prescriptions lives miserably.
—Common Proverb
Well, now there’s a remedy for everything except death.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
The superior doctor prevents sickness; The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness; The inferior doctor treats actual sickness;
—Chinese Proverb
A dose of adversity is often as needful as a dose of medicine.
—Common Proverb
The best doctor is the one you run to and can’t find.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
We have to ask ourselves whether medicine is to remain a humanitarian and respected profession or a new but depersonalized science in the service of prolonging life rather than diminishing human suffering.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004) American Psychiatrist
Is it not also true that no physician, in so far as he is a physician, considers or enjoins what is for the physician’s interest, but that all seek the good of their patients? For we have agreed that a physician strictly so called, is a ruler of bodies, and not a maker of money, have we not?
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Medicine cures the man who is fated not to die.
—Common Proverb
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
Medicine knows no limits, especially not its own.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
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
I was not long since in a company where I was not who of my fraternity brought news of a kind of pills, by true account, composed of a hundred and odd several ingredients; whereat we laughed very heartily, and made ourselves good sport; for what rock so hard were able to resist the shock or withstand the force of so thick and numerous a battery?
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
For what Harley Street specialist has time to understand the body, let alone the mind or both in combination, when he is a slave to thirteen thousand a year?
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
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
Sleep is better than medicine.
—Anonymous
Medicines are only fit for old people.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
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
The bitterness of the potion, and the abhorrence of the patient are necessary circumstances to the operation. It must be something to trouble and disturb the stomach that must purge and cure it.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
You medical people will have more lives to answer for in the other world than even we generals.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Medicine, to produce health, has to examine disease; and music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth: and he that is wise will not abhor them. Was not the water made sweet with wood, that the virtue thereof might be known?
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Walking is man’s best medicine.
—Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) Ancient Greek Physician
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
They do certainly give very strange, and newfangled, names to diseases.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Many of us will die for science without knowing it.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
Doctor, no medicine.—We are machines made to live—organized expressly for that purpose.—Such is our nature.—Do not counteract the living principle.—Leave it at liberty to defend itself, and it will do better than your drugs.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France