Medicine has been investigating the diseases that human beings suffer for centuries to try to prevent and cure them with vaccines and increasingly effective treatments. In fact, diseases that devastated entire continents in times past, such as the Black Death, which left Europe with less than half of its population.
With successive scientific advances, many diseases have been able to find a cure or an effective treatment, which has meant that life expectancy has increased significantly in the last century.
Medicine Phrases (and Aphorisms)
Hundreds of doctors and researchers have left us an incomparable legacy. To pay tribute to this profession, We have prepared a selection of the best Medicine phrases pronounced by doctors and researchers of all times.
1. The good doctor treats the disease; the great doctor treats the patient who has the disease. (William Osler)
Great famous phrase, perhaps one of the most reproduced, that teaches us the path to being a professional doctor.
2. Time is generally the best doctor. (Ovid)
The Roman poet, in a reflection on the healing properties of letting time pass.
3. Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability. (William Osler)
Each patient is a different story, and the effectiveness of the medicine is based on statistical study.
4. Medications are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is. (Norman Cousins)
About pharmacology, sometimes overstated.
5. Where medicine does not reach, no one can. But hope can be therapeutic. (Francis Castel)
Having a positive mood is vital.
6. Seeking a doctor without having the will to cure yourself is like trying to fish in a puddle. (Juan Armando Corbin)
Reflection on the importance of wanting to survive.
7. Patience is the best medicine. (John Florio)
A quality that pushes us to heal our body and mind.
8. Stem cell research can revolutionize medicine, more than anything it has done since antibiotics appeared. (Ron Reagan)
About the budding scientific and medical revolution.
9. May your food be your only medicine. (Hippocrates)
Good nutritional bases are key to keeping our health in top shape.
10. The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient in a good state of mind while nature heals him. (Voltaire)
Humility and perseverance; That’s what medicine is based on.
11. Work! If you don’t need it to feed yourself, you need it as medicine. (William Penn)
Work dignifies, and perhaps can even heal.
12. The best doctor is the one who knows the uselessness of most medicines. (Benjamin Franklin)
Curious reflection from one of the founders of the United States.
13. Anything is possible – he had said -. We are not gods, we do not know everything. -And he had added-: deep coma is a mystery for medicine. (Marc Levy)
Certainly, it is a state about which little is known.
14. Science and medicine deal with the body, while philosophy deals with the mind and soul, as necessary to a doctor as food and air. (Noah Gordon)
Extract from the book The Doctor.
15. There is only one medicine, and it is effective when it has scientific evidence behind it to support it. (JM Mulet)
Medicine phrase from the Spanish researcher and lecturer.
16. Medicine is the art of fighting men for today’s death, to give them to them in a better state, a little later. (Noel Clarasó)
An ironic reflection on what is to come.
17. Those who search do more for medicine than those who conclude. (Mastretta Angels)
About the scientific spirit that should underpin medical activity.
18. It would be fantastic if the doctor had the opportunity to experiment with various medicines on himself. He would understand the action of medications in a very different way. (Mikhail Bulgakov)
A critical view on pharmacology.
19. I consider medicine a priesthood, like being a spiritual pastor. Asking a sick person for money to heal them is a bit like saying: the stock market or life. (Patrick Deville)
About the infamous health system of some countries, such as the United States.
20. Words are medicine for the suffering soul. (Aeschylus)
A friend or family member who takes care of us is always comfortable and helps us recover.
21. Medicine is the art of accompanying the tomb with Greek words. (Enrique Poncela)
A great and ironic medical phrase.
22. Medicine is the art of preserving health and eventually curing disease that has occurred in the body. (Avicenna)
Prevent before cure.
23. I die because of the help of too many doctors. (Alexander the Great)
Too many cures can be stressful and lead to poorer health.
24. Medicine has prolonged our lives, but it has not given us a good reason to continue living. (Miguel Delibes)
A great reflection from the Spanish writer.
25. Doctors like beer, the older they are, the better. (Thomas Fuller)
Experience gives them wisdom.
26. Doctors cut, burn, torture. And by doing good to the sick, which seems more like evil, they demand a reward that they hardly deserve. (Heraclitus)
Great medical phrase that comes to us from Ancient Greece.
27. Who decides when doctors disagree? (Alexander Pope)
A mystery that remains hidden in the back rooms of hospitals.
28. Almost all doctors have their favorite diseases. (Henry Fielding)
Like any professional, there are things that arouse more interest than others.
29. Doctors kill and live by killing, and the complaint falls on the illness. (Francisco de Quevedo)
An openly negative view of the medical profession.
30. The progress of medicine brings us the end of that liberal era in which man could still die of what he wanted. (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
Reflection on the development of this applied science.
31. Doctors are not for that; Its mission is to prescribe and collect; Whether or not to be cured is the patient’s responsibility. (Moliere)
Another criticism of health professionals.
32. The best medicine is an always joyful mood. (Solomon)
Another medical phrase that emphasizes the importance of positive mood.
33. When a medicine does not cause harm, we should be happy and not also demand that it be useful for something. (Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais)
A skeptical view on the therapeutic properties of medicine.
34. Magicians can achieve more through faith than doctors through truth. (Giordano Bruno)
The Italian philosopher and poet also did not trust medicine too much.
35. Medicine can only cure curable diseases. (Chinese proverb)
Miracles, unfortunately, do not exist.
36. Medicine heals, nature heals. (Latin proverb)
A valuable and useful distinction to improve our lives.
37. The doctor must be nature’s assistant, not its enemy. (Paracelsus)
The best doctors are true experts of the natural environment and the processes that occur in the environment.
38. He who only knows medicine, does not know medicine. (Jose de Letamendi)
The best doctors are experts in different areas of knowledge.
39. The sick man who names his doctor as his heir proceeds clumsily. (Syrian Publius)
Throughout human history, doctors have not had a very good reputation.
40. The doctor cannot cure well without keeping the patient in mind. (Seneca)
A phrase that is still totally valid today.
41. The best doctor in the world is the veterinarian: he cannot ask his patients what is wrong with them. He simply has to know. (Will Rogers)
A quite accurate reflection on the profession of veterinarian.
42. The best doctors in the world are: doctor diet, doctor rest and doctor joy. (Jonathan Swift)
Without a doubt, advice that we can apply to ourselves daily.
43. The doctor who does not understand souls will not understand bodies. (Jose Narosky)
In many cultures, physical health is related to psychological health and vice versa.
44. A doctor receives no pleasure from the health of his friends. (Montaigne)
This French philosopher left us truly funny quotes.
45. Doctors like beer, the older they are, the better. (Thomas Fuller)
The most valued doctors are always the most senior and vice versa.
46. The sooner patients are removed from the depressing influence of the hospital, the faster their convalescence will be. (Charles H. Mayo)
A reflection that should be taken into account in the world of medicine.
47. Only the doctor and the playwright enjoy the rare privilege of receiving compensation for the discomfort they give us. (Santiago Ramón Y Cajal)
A humorous quote from this famous Spanish doctor.
48. Wherever the art of medicine is loved, humanity is also loved. (Plato).
A truly memorable phrase from this great Greek thinker.
49. Heaven heals and the doctor collects fees. (Benjamin Franklin)
There are many jokes that have been made about doctors since time immemorial.
50. Disease research has advanced so much that it is increasingly difficult to find someone who is completely healthy. (Aldous Huxley)
A very interesting reflection made by one of the most famous science fiction writers of the 20th century.
51. When a doctor goes after his patient’s coffin, sometimes the cause follows the effect. (Robert Koch)
Jokes and humorous comments about doctors have been a constant throughout human history.
52. The competent doctor, before giving medicine to his patient, familiarizes himself not only with the disease he wishes to cure, but also with the habits and constitution of the patient. (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Without a doubt, medicine must be adapted to each patient at all times.
53. Medicine is the only universal profession that everywhere follows the same methods, acts with the same objectives and seeks the same ends. (Sir William Osler)
It is precisely the scientific method that allows us to have effective medicine.
54. One of the first duties of a doctor is to educate the masses to avoid taking medicine. (William Osler)
A maxim that many doctors should take into account today.
55. There is no medicine that cures what does not cure happiness.
Happiness is undoubtedly one of the best remedies that exist for many ills.
56. It is much more important to know which patient has the disease than what kind of disease the patient has. (William Osler)
Good medicine is that which treats the patient individually.
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PsychologyFor. (2024). 56 Famous Phrases from Medicine (to Understand Doctors). https://psychologyfor.com/56-famous-phrases-from-medicine-to-understand-doctors/