“Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate.”
Ὁ βίος βραχὺς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρὴ, ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὀξὺς, ἡ δὲ πεῖρα σφαλερὴ, ἡ δὲ κρίσις χαλεπή. Δεῖ δὲ οὐ μόνον ἑωυτὸν παρέχειν τὰ δέοντα ποιεῦντα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν νοσέοντα, καὶ τοὺς παρεόντας, καὶ τὰ ἔξωθεν.
1:1, Variant translation: Art is long; life is short; opportunity is fleeting; judgement is difficult; experience is deceitful. Compare: "The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne", Geoffrey Chaucer, The Assembly of Fowles, line 1.
Aphorisms
Original
Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile. Nec vero solum seipsum praestare oportet oportuna facientem: sed et assidentes, et exteriora.
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Hippocrates 33
ancient Greek physician -460–-370 BCRelated quotes
“Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”
Die Kunst ist lang, das Leben kurz, das Urteil schwierig, die Gelegenheit flüchtig.
Bk. VII, Ch. 9
Cf. Hippocrates, Ars longa vita brevis, Aphorisms 1:1
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
“A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient.”
Source: Sir William Osler : Aphorisms (1961), Ch. 1.
“Art is long, life is short.”
Ars longa, vita brevis.
Seneca's (De Brevitate Vitae, 1.1) Latin translation of the Greek by Hippocrates.
Misattributed
“Art indeed is long, but life is short.”
Upon the Death of Lord Hastings (1649), last line
Variant: "Art is long, and time is fleeting." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life (1839).
2009, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (December 2009)
Context: Let me make one final point about the use of force. Even as we make difficult decisions about going to war, we must also think clearly about how we fight it.
Ben Horowitz, " The Fine Line Between Fear and Courage http://www.bhorowitz.com/the_fine_line_between_fear_and_courage," at bhorowitz.com, August 07, 2011.
Source: How to Read a Book (1940, 1972), p. 12
Source: House Calls: How we can all heal the world one visit at a time (1998), p. xi