The best physician is he who can distinguish the possible from the impossible.
—Herophilus, c. 290 BC
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Quotes
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1902To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968In the name of Hippocrates doctors have invented the most exquisite form of torture ever known to man: survival.
—Luis Buñuel, 1983Of my friends, I am the only one I have left.
—Terence, 161 BCWhat is food to one is to others bitter poison.
—Lucretius, 50 BCSpeech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCMen are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, 1531A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
—Herman Melville, 1851Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.
—Samuel Johnson, 1771We die of comfort and by conflict live.
—May Sarton, 1953I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962