“As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm.”

— Hippocrates

Epidemics, Book I, Ch. 2, Full text online at Wikisource
Variant translation: The physician must be able to tell the antecedents, know the present, and foretell the future — must mediate these things, and have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm.
Paraphrased variants:
Wherever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm.
Viking Book of Aphorisms : A Personal Selection (1988) by W. H. Auden and Louis Kronenberger, p. 213.

Original

ἀσκεῖν περὶ τὰ νοσήματα δύο, ὠφελεῖν ἢ μὴ βλάπτειν

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Jan. 23, 2024. History

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Hippocrates 33

ancient Greek physician -460–-370 BC

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“As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm.”

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Hippocrates 33

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