Let the young know they will never find a more interesting, more instructive book than the patient himself.
—Giorgio Baglivi, c. 1696Quotes
All pain is one malady with many names.
—Antiphanes, c. 400 BCBecause the newer methods of treatment are good, it does not follow that the old ones were bad: for if our honorable and worshipful ancestors had not recovered from their ailments, you and I would not be here today.
—Confucius, c. 515 BCDoctors don’t know everything really. They understand matter, not spirit. And you and I live in spirit.
—William Saroyan, 1943There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.
—Sylvia Plath, 1963No families take so little medicine as those of doctors, except those of apothecaries.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1860You can’t find the soul with a scalpel.
—Gustave Flaubert, c. 1880He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1833Health indeed is a precious thing, to recover and preserve which we undergo any misery, drink bitter potions, freely give our goods—restore a man to his health, his purse lies open to thee.
—Robert Burton, 1621A miracle drug is any drug that will do what the label says it will do.
—Eric Hodgins, 1964To be sick is to enjoy monarchal prerogatives.
—Charles Lamb, 1833Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
—James Madison, 1794In the name of Hippocrates doctors have invented the most exquisite form of torture ever known to man: survival.
—Luis Buñuel, 1983