Famous Medical Quotes

Written on August 4, 2009 – 1:44 am | by admin |

These are some famous medical quotes about doctors, medicines and medical science.

The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated. A Medical quote by Plato

I learned a long time ago that minor surgery is when they do the operation on someone else, not you. A Medical quote by Bill Walton

In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in giving health to men. A Medical quote by Cicero

Surgeons must be very careful
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the Culprit - Life!
A Medical quote by Emily Dickinson

My doctor is nice; every time I see him, I’m ashamed of what I think of doctors in general. A Medical quote by Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966

Body and soul cannot be separated for purposes of treatment, for they are one and indivisible. Sick minds must be healed as well as sick bodies. A Medical quote by C. Jeff Miller

Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents. A Medical quote by Peter Mere Latham

In the sick room, ten cents’ worth of human understanding equals ten dollars’ worth of medical science. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

God and the Doctor we alike adore
But only when in danger, not before;
The danger o’er, both are alike requited,
God is forgotten, and the Doctor slighted.
A Medical quote by Robert Owen

It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class.

Restore a man to his health, his purse lies open to thee. A Medical quote by Robert Burton

I got the bill for my surgery. Now I know what those doctors were wearing masks for. A Medical quote by James H. Boren

A hospital should also have a recovery room adjoining the cashier’s office. A Medical quote by Francis O’Walsh

Did God who gave us flowers and trees,
Also provide the allergies?
A Medical quote by E.Y. Harburg, “A Nose Is a Nose Is a Nose,” 1965

It is a wise mans part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wishe for medicines. A Medical quote by Thomas More, Utopia [sic]

I wondher why ye can always read a doctor’s bill an’ ye niver can read his purscription. A Medical quote by Finley Peter Dunne

You have a cough? Go home tonight, eat a whole box of Ex-Lax - tomorrow you’ll be afraid to cough. A Medical quote by Pearl Williams

To array a man’s will against his sickness is the supreme art of medicine. A Medical quote by Henry Ward Beecher

A doctor whose breath smells has no right to medical opinion. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

It is a good thing for a physician to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. The first makes him appear to know more than he does, and the second gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. A Medical quote by A. Benson Cannon

A doctor who cannot take a good history and a patient who cannot give one are in danger of giving and receiving bad treatment.

One thousand Americans stop smoking every day - by dying.

A hypochondriac is one who has a pill for everything except what ails him. A Medical quote by Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. A Medical quote by Voltaire

A doctor must work eighteen hours a day and seven days a week. If you cannot console yourself to this, get out of the profession. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

It is sometimes as dangerous to be run into by a microbe as by a trolley car. A Medical quote by J.J. Walsh

Every disease is a physician. A Medical quote by Irish Proverb

God heales, and the Physitian hath the thankes. A Medical quote by George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs

Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is. A Medical quote by Norman Cousins

I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes. A Medical quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes

There is no curing a sick man who believes himself to be in health. A Medical quote by Henri Amiel

Doctors think a lot of patients are cured who have simply quit in disgust. A Medical quote by Don Herold

The only equipment lack in the modern hospital? Somebody to meet you at the entrance with a handshake! A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

The worst thing about medicine is that one kind makes another necessary. A Medical quote by Elbert Hubbard

When you are called to a sick man, be sure you know what the matter is - if you do not know, nature can do a great deal better than you can guess. ~Nicholas de Belleville

Throw physic to the dogs; I’ll none of it. A Medical quote by William Shakespeare

I recently became a Christian Scientist. It was the only health plan I could afford. A Medical quote by Betsy Salkind

In the nineteenth century men lost their fear of God and acquired a fear of microbes.

Symptoms, then are in reality nothing but the cry from suffering organs. A Medical quote by Jean Martin Charcot, translated from French

I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its most virulent form. A Medical quote by Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

Diagnosis is not the end, but the beginning of practice. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

The physician should look upon the patient as a besieged city and try to rescue him with every means that art and science place at his command. A Medical quote by Alexander of Tralles

Physicians and politicians resemble one another in this respect, that some defend the constitution and others destroy it.

A smart mother makes often a better diagnosis than a poor doctor. A Medical quote by August Bier

When fate arrives the physician becomes a fool. A Medical quote by Arabic Proverb

Medicines are not meat to live by. A Medical quote by German Proverb

Treat the patient, not the Xray. A Medical quote by James M. Hunter

Financial ruin from medical bills is almost exclusively an American disease. A Medical quote by Roul Turley

The hospital is the only proper College in which to rear a true disciple of Aesculapius. A Medical quote by John Abernethy

A man who cannot work without his hypodermic needle is a poor doctor. The amount of narcotic you use is inversely proportional to your skill. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought,
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught,
The wise, for cure, on exercise depend;
God never made his work for man to mend.
A Medical quote by John Dryden

Medicine is the only profession that labours incessantly to destroy the reason for its own existence. A Medical quote by James Bryce, 1914

It is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow creature. A Medical quote by John Brown

The patient does not care about your science; what he wants to know is, can you cure him? A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

Medicines heals doubts as well as diseases. A Medical quote by Karl Marx

A physician is obligated to consider more than a diseased organ, more even than the whole man - he must view the man in his world. A Medical quote by Harvey Cushing

Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it. A Medical quote by Ovid, Tristia

As it takes two to make a quarrel, so it takes two to make a disease, the microbe and its host. A Medical quote by Charles V. Chapin

Disease is war with the laws of our being, and all war, as a great general has said, is hell. A Medical quote by Lewis G. Janes

Until a physician has killed one or two he is not a physician. A Medical quote by Kashmiri Proverb

No man is a good doctor who has never been sick himself. A Medical quote by Chinese Proverb

Only one rule in medical ethics need concern you - that action on your part which best conserves the interests of your patient. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

To me the ideal doctor would be a man endowed with profound knowledge of life and of the soul, intuitively divining any suffering or disorder of whatever kind, and restoring peace by his mere presence. A Medical quote by Henri Amiel

Medicinal discovery,
It moves in mighty leaps,
It leapt straight past the common cold
And give it us for keeps.
A Medical quote by Pam Ayres

When you no longer know what headache, heartache, or stomachache means without cistern punctures, electrocardiograms and six x-ray plates, you are slipping. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to get one single remedy. A Medical quote by Chinese Proverb

Never forget that it is not a pneumonia, but a pneumonic man who is your patient. A Medical quote by William Withey Gull

It is said to be the manner of hypochondriacs to change often their physician. A Medical quote by William Cullen, Practice of Physic

The road to medical knowledge is through the pathological museum and not through an apothecary’s shop. A Medical quote by William Withey Gull

A Short History of Medicine
2000 B.C. - “Here, eat this root.”
1000 B.C. - “That root is heathen, say this prayer.”
1850 A.D. - “That prayer is superstition, drink this potion.”
1940 A.D. - “That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill.”
1985 A.D. - “That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic.”
2000 A.D. - “That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.”

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it cannot be cured. A Medical quote by Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

A half doctor near is better than a whole one far away. A Medical quote by German Proverb

No doctor is better than three. A Medical quote by German Proverb

I will lift mine eyes unto the pills. Almost everyone takes them, from the humble aspirin to the multi-coloured, king-sized three deckers, which put you to sleep, wake you up, stimulate and soothe you all in one. It is an age of pills. A Medical quote by Malcolm Muggeridge, 1962

Man may be the captain of his fate, but is also the victim of his blood sugar. A Medical quote by Wilfrid G. Oakley

Faith and knowledge lean largely upon each other in the practice of medicine. A Medical quote by Peter Mere Latham

Each patient ought to feel somewhat the better after the physician’s visit, irrespective of the nature of the illness. A Medical quote by Warfield Theobald Longcope

Who ever thought up the word “Mammogram?” Every time I hear it, I think I’m supposed to put my breast in an envelope and send it to someone. A Medical quote by Jan King

Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. A Medical quote by Erma Bombeck

You may know the intractability of a disease by its long list of remedies. A Medical quote by Alonzo Clark

Here’s good advice for practice: go into partnership with nature; she does more than half the work and asks none of the fee. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

Varicose veins are the result of an improper selection of grandparents. A Medical quote by William Osler

If you are too smart to pay the doctor, you had better be too smart to get ill. A Medical quote by African Proverb

When you treat a disease, first treat the mind. A Medical quote by Chen Jen

Symptoms are the body’s mother tongue; signs are in a foreign language. A Medical quote by John Brown

The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. A Medical quote by Thomas Edison

Oh the powers of nature. She knows what we need, and the doctors know nothing. A Medical quote by Benvenuto Cellini

So many come to the sickroom thinking of themselves as men of science fighting disease and not as healers with a little knowledge helping nature to get a sick man well. A Medical quote by Auckland Geddes, The Practitioner

Where a man feels pain he lays his hand. A Medical quote by Dutch Proverb

The doctor is often more to be feared than the disease. A Medical quote by French Proverb

Despite all our toil and progress, the art of medicine still falls somewhere between trout casting and spook writing. A Medical quote by Ben Hecht, Miracle of the Fifteen Murderers

The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them. A Medical quote by Ecclesiasticus 38:4

A drug is that substance which, when injected into a rat, will produce a scientific report.

Cancer is a word, not a sentence. A Medical quote by John Diamond

The medicalization of early diagnosis not only hampers and discourages preventative health-care but it also trains the patient-to-be to function in the meantime as an acolyte to his doctor. He learns to depend on the physician in sickness and in health. He turns into a life-long patient. A Medical quote by Ivan Illich

Patients may recover in spite of drugs or because of them. A Medical quote by J.H. Gaddum

He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines. A Medical quote by Benjamin Franklin

Physiology is the stepchild of medicine. That is why Cinderella often turns out the queen. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

The field of Western medicine has become literally nothing but medicine. Doctors are on their way out, to be replaced by self-serve pharmaceutical vending machines. A Medical quote by Grey Livingston

The fact that your patient gets well does not prove that your diagnosis was correct. A Medical quote by Samuel J. Meltzer

Man is a creature composed of countless millions of cells: a microbe is composed of only one, yet throughout the ages the two have been in ceaseless conflict. A Medical quote by A.B. Christie

Our profession is the only one which works unceasingly to annihilate itself. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

On J-Day our profession will have a lot to answer for! We might at least have withheld our hands instead of making them work against God. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

The doctor may also learn more about the illness from the way the patient tells the story than from the story itself. A Medical quote by James B. Herrick

Don’t think of organ donations as giving up part of yourself to keep a total stranger alive. It’s really a total stranger giving up almost all of themselves to keep part of you alive.

Most of those evils we poor mortals know
From doctors and imagination flow.
A Medical quote by Charles Churchill

Men are not going to embrace eugenics. They are going to embrace the first likely, trim-figured girl with limpid eyes and flashing teeth who comes along, in spite of the fact that her germ plasm is probably reeking with hypertension, cancer, haemophilia, colour blindness, hay fever, epilepsy, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A Medical quote by Logan Clendening

Don’t take your organs to heaven with you. Heaven knows we need them here.

‘Tis not always in a physician’s power to cure the sick; at times the disease is stronger than trained art. A Medical quote by Ovid

And lo, The Hospital, grey, quiet, old, Where Life and Death like friendly chafferers meet. A Medical quote by William Ernest Henley

For the most part, Western medicine doctors are not healers, preventers, listeners, or educators. But they’re damned good at saving a life and the other aspects kick the beam. It’s about time we brought some balance back to the scale. A Medical quote by Claire Todae

A sweating ovary or a sick prostate explains most history. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

The only weapon with which the unconscious patient can immediately retaliate upon the incompetent surgeon is hemorrhage. A Medical quote by William Stewart Halsted

The public blabbers about preventative medicine, but will neither appreciate nor pay for it. You get paid for what you cure. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

To save a man’s life against his will is the same as killing him. A Medical quote by Horace

Nowadays the clinical history too often weighs more than the man. A Medical quote by Martin H. Fischer

Hypochondriacs squander large sums of time in search of nostrums by which they vainly hope they may get more time to squander. A Medical quote by Mortimer Collins

One doctor makes work for another. A Medical quote by English Proverb

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you, too. A Medical quote by Anton Chekhov, Ivanov

Let the young know they will never find a more interesting, more instructive book than the patient himself. A Medical quote by Giorgio Baglivi

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic. A Medical quote by Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin, 1973