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Medicine
- I am dying with the help of too many physicians.bc Greek monarch, King of Macedon from 336 bc: attributed356–323
- Medicinal discovery,
It moves in mighty leaps,
It leapt straight past the common cold
And gave it us for keeps.1947– English writer of humorous verse: ‘Oh no, I got a cold’ (1976) - Physicians of the Utmost Fame
Were called at once; but when they came
They answered, as they took their Fees,
‘There is no Cure for this Disease.’1870–1953 British poet, essayist, historian, novelist, and Liberal politician: Cautionary Tales (1907) ‘Henry King’ - I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one.1897–1960 British Labour politician: speech, House of Commons, 30 April 1946
- We all labour against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases.1605–82 English writer and physician: Religio Medici (1643) pt. 2, sect. 9
- If a lot of cures are suggested for a disease, it means that the disease is incurable.1860–1904 Russian dramatist and short-story writer: The Cherry Orchard (1904) act 1
- Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.to be said 15 to 20 times, morning and evening1857–1926 French psychologist: De la suggestion et de ses applications (1915)
- The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.1888–1965 American-born British poet, critic, and dramatist: Four Quartets ‘East Coker’ (1940) pt. 4 - We shall have to learn to refrain from doing things merely because we know how to do them.1899–1989 English doctor: speech to Royal College of Physicians, 18 October 1965
- May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain… May neither avarice nor miserliness, nor thirst for glory or for a great reputation engage my mind; for the enemies of truth and philanthropy could easily deceive me and make me forgetful of my lofty aim of doing good to Thy children.known as ‘The Prayer of Maimonides’ and frequently wrongly attributed to Maimonides, but written in German and translated into Hebrew by a modern Jewish doctor1747–1803 German physician: G. Deutsch ‘The Prayer of Maimonides’ in American Israelite 19 March 1908
- Life is short, the art long.often quoted as ‘Ars longa, vita brevis’, after Seneca's rendering in De Brevitate Vitae sect. 1bc Greek physician: Aphorisms sect. 1, para. 1 (tr. W. H. S. Jones); see Chaucerc.460–357
- As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help, or at least to do no harm.bc Greek physician: Epidemicsc.460–357
- I swear by Apollo the physician, by Asclepius, by Health, by Panacea and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgement, this oath and this indenture.bc Greek physician: The Hippocratic Oath (tr. W. H. S. Jones)c.460–357
- I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgement, but never with a view to injury or wrong-doing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.bc Greek physician: The Hippocratic Oath (tr. W. H. S. Jones)c.460–357
- I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.bc Greek physician: The Hippocratic Oath (tr. W. H. S. Jones)c.460–357
- Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.bc Greek physician: Precepts ch. 1 (tr. W. H. S. Jones, 1923)c.460–357
- One of the most difficult things to contend with in a hospital is the assumption on the part of the staff that because you have lost your gall bladder you have also lost your mind. 1923–2003 American writer: How I Got to be Perfect (1979)
- It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm.1820–1910 English nurse: Notes on Hospitals (1863 ed.) preface
- What nursing has to do … is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.1820–1910 English nurse: Notes on Nursing (1860)
- The young physician starts life with twenty drugs for each disease, and the old physician ends life with one drug for twenty diseases.1849–1919 Canadian-born physician: Aphorisms from His Bedside Teachings and Writings (1950, ed. William Bennett Bean)
- One finger in the throat and one in the rectum makes a good diagnostician.1849–1919 Canadian-born physician: Aphorisms from his Bedside Teachings (1961)
- The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.1849–1919 Canadian-born physician: H. Cushing Life of Sir William Osler (1925) vol. 1, ch. 14
- Cured yesterday of my disease,
I died last night of my physician.1664–1721 English poet: ‘The Remedy Worse than the Disease’ (1727) - By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death
Will seize the doctor too.1564–1616 English dramatist: Cymbeline (1609–10) - Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it.1564–1616 English dramatist: Macbeth (1606) act 5, sc. 3, l. 47 (Oxford Standard Authors ed.)
- There is at bottom only one genuinely scientific treatment for all diseases, and that is to stimulate the phagocytes.1856–1950 Irish dramatist: The Doctor's Dilemma (1911) act 1
- Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.1920–2012 Hungarian-born psychiatrist: The Second Sin (1973) ‘Science and Scientism’
- Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale.1821–1902 German pathologist: ‘The Charity Physician’ (1848) in L. J. Rather (ed.) Collected Essays on Public Health and Epidemiology (1985)
- Ah, well, then, I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.at the mention of a huge fee for a surgical operation1854–1900 Irish dramatist and poet: R. H. Sherard Life of Oscar Wilde (1906) ch. 18