“The great secret, known to internists and learned early in marriage by internist’s wives, but still hidden from the general public, is that most things get better by themselves. Most things, in fact, are better by morning. Obviously, it is a great time-saver and money-saver for the physician’s family that anxiety about disease is not handled as though it were the disease itself; there is perhaps greater willingness to accept anxiety as a natural, often transient, phenomenon. And certainly there is much less ambition to deploy the full technology of medicine as a corrective for the human condition.”

— Lewis Thomas

Source: Aspects of Biomedical Science Policy (1972), p. 3

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Lewis Thomas 31

American physician, poet and educator 1913–1993

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“Freud to Paul: The Stages of Auden’s Ideology”, p. 180
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)

“What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

George Dennison Prentice http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/4820, in Prenticeana (1860)
Misattributed

“In cases of rape, trying to prevent pregnancies is obviously the best thing. The morning-after pill works successfully most of the time. Ultimately we do better if we do have better education about family planning.”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

US Senate hopeful Rand Paul visits Middlesboro
Lorie Settles
2010-01-26
Middlesboro Daily News
http://www.middlesborodailynews.com/view/full_story/5661743/article-US-Senate-hopeful-Rand-Paul-visits-Middlesboro
2010-11-17
Posed question: "What about instances of rape or incest or where the outcome may not be death, but severe medical problems for the mother or child. Do you think that in these cases the decision should be left to the government rather than the families?"

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

But it was inevitable that Auden should arrive at this point. His anxiety is fundamental; and the one thing that anxiety cannot do is to accept itself, to do nothing about itself — consequently it admires more than anything else in the world doing nothing, sitting still, waiting.

“Freud to Paul: The Stages of Auden’s Ideology”, p. 180
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)