“The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it”
Maimónides (1138–1204) rabbi, physician, philosopher
Source: Sir William Osler : Aphorisms (1961), Ch. 1.
“The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it”
Maimónides (1138–1204) rabbi, physician, philosopher
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) French novelist, dramatist, scientist and duelist
The Other World (1657)
Context: The most competent physician of our world advises the patient to listen to an ignorant doctor who the patient thinks is very competent rather than to a competent doctor who the patient thinks is ignorant. He reason is that our imagination works for our good health, and as long as it is supplemented by remedies, it is capable of healing us. But the most powerful remedies are too weak when the imagination does not apply them.
New York State Journal of Medicine, review of Understanding the Alcoholic's Mind.
“There is no liar like the one who lies to himself. He has a fool indeed for an audience.”
Jane Yolen (1939) American speculative fiction and children's writer
Source: Short fiction, Dragonfield and Other Stories (1985), The Bull & the Crowth (p. 122)
Hippocrates (-460–-370 BC) ancient Greek physician
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
Patch Adams (1945) Physician, activist, diplomat, author
Source: House Calls: How we can all heal the world one visit at a time (1998), p. xi
Bidhan Chandra Roy (1882–1962) Former Chief Minister of West Bengal, India
This was in reply to to Gandhiji’s refusal to take medicine as it was not made in India in page=94
Remembering Our Leaders: Mahadeo Govind Ranade by Pravina Bhim Sain
“He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
Source: Epigrams, p. 345