“The problem for a Paracelsian physician like me is that I see diseases as disguises in which people present me with their wretchedness.”

—  Robertson Davies , book The Cunning Man

Part 4, section 21.
The Cunning Man (1994)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The problem for a Paracelsian physician like me is that I see diseases as disguises in which people present me with the…" by Robertson Davies?
Robertson Davies photo
Robertson Davies 282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995

Related quotes

John Donne photo

“I observe the physician, with the same diligence, as he the disease; I see he fears, and I fear with him…”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

VI. Metuit. The physician is afraid
Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624)

“I like seeing people when they can't see me.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Aeschylus photo

“Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.”

Aeschylus Prometheus Bound

Source: Prometheus Bound, line 378; compare: "Apt words have power to suage / The tumours of a troubl'd mind", John Milton, Samson Agonistes.

Anne Brontë photo

“The greater the happiness that nature sets before me, the more I lament that he is not here to taste it: the greater the bliss we might enjoy together, the more I feel our present wretchedness apart.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXV : First Absence; Helen Graham

Artur Schnabel photo

“I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a never-ending problem, it doesn't interest me too much.”

Artur Schnabel (1882–1951) Austrian pianist

Often misquoted as "Great music is better than it can be performed".
Source: My Life and Music (1961), p. 121

Matthew Prior photo

“Cured yesterday of my disease,
I died last night of my physician.”

Matthew Prior (1664–1721) British diplomat, poet

The Remedy Worse than the Disease (1714).

Vanna Bonta photo

“The news is disease in disguise pretending to be information.”

Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)

"Do I Have To?"
Degrees: Thought Capsules and Micro Tales (1989)

Frank Macfarlane Burnet photo

“I can see no hope at present of such a vaccine being produced… I have adopted a frankly defeatist attitude towards the problem of poliomyelitis and I hope that future developments will prove me wrong… No means of controlling poliomyelitis is at present visible.”

Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1899–1985) Australian virologist

Burnet, F.M. (1949) "Some aspects of the epidemiology of poliomyelitis". in: Proc. Royal Australasian College of Physicians. 4: 95-100.
Quote from 1949 on the development of a poliomyelitis vaccine, which was developed later that year.

Henry Fielding photo

“Every physician almost hath his favorite disease.”

Henry Fielding (1707–1754) English novelist and dramatist

Book II, Ch. 9
The History of Tom Jones (1749)

Related topics