20th-century Physician Quotes

A. J. Cronin

Josef Mengele

Severo Ochoa

Christiaan Barnard

James Black

Max Theiler

Roger Bannister

On being charged:

Murder... murder... Can you prove it was murder? [...] I didn't think you could prove it was murder. She was dying in any event.

John Bodkin Adams

All individuals are imperfect and forgetful and find it difficult to transcend immediate self-interest. Historically therefore it has been deemed essential to create constitutional bodies that uphold and insist on adherence to certain ethical standards... If all these medical ethical bodies are to gain the respect of the public they should remain alert to intervene whenever these standards are threatened.

If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.

Roger Bannister

It is clear today that a pediatrician must also be an educator. And surely there is joy in both tasks, as they are the most wonderful that can be imagined. We are entrusted with the care of the child, a fresh young creature who before our very eyes thrives and grows, one may even say flowers. It is given to us to accompany him from day to day and from hour to hour, from childhood to youth and adolescence along a shining and upward path. It is given to us to impart to him not only what is defined as the task as education - the culture passed down throughout the generations - but also health, strength and joy of life.

Aron Brand Auraban

A man telephoned a friend at two o'clock in the morning. 'I do hope I haven't disturbed you,' he said cheerily. 'Oh no,' the friend replied, 'that's quite all right. I had to get up to answer the telephone anyway.'

I recall the telegram I received at the time of our first Congress from an ordinary woman in Brooklyn. It was short: "Thank you on behalf of the children."
As adults we are obliged to avert transformation of the Earth from a flourishing planet into a heap of smoking ruins. Our duty is to hand it over to our successors in a better state than it was inherited by us. Therefore, it is not for fame, but for the happiness and for the future of all mothers and children that we — the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War — have worked, are working and will work.

Yevgeniy Chazov

If you knew that miracles could happen, what miracles would you wish for? If you knew that you could have it all and do anything you wanted, what would you choose to have and what would you choose to do?

Above all am I convinced of the need, irrevocable and inescapable, of every human heart, for God. No matter how we try to escape, to lose ourselves in restless seeking, we cannot separate ourselves from our divine source. There is no substitute for God.

Creativity and lateral thinking have exactly the same basis as humour.

I must remember the things I have seen. I must keep them fresh in memory, see them again in my mind's eye, live through them again and again in my thoughts. And most of all, I must make good use of them in tomorrow's life.

Thomas Anthony Dooley III

In regard to masturbation, I think that it is something that is a part of human sexuality and it's a part of something that perhaps should be taught. But we've not even taught our children the very basics. And I feel we have tried ignorance for a very long time and it's time we try education.

Joycelyn Elders

It is time now to introduce my friend Peter Duesberg. Where do I begin? At NIH, Peter is sometimes known as the battling bulldog. He gets his teeth into something and 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years later those teeth are still sunk in it. [...] He began working with retroviruses around 1966. The next major phase of his work involved his classic studies with Petter Vogt; Vogt the biologist, Peter the biochemist. This really led to the first molecular and genetically defined transforming gene, the sarc gene. A great deal of this brilliant and original, the real critical aspects, was carried out by this extraordinarily effective collaboration through the 1970s.

'Il est urgent et important de légaliser la transfusion sanguine universelle par adoption immunitaire.'

These testimonies establish once and for all that we are not alone. Technologies related to extraterrestrial phenomena are capable of providing solutions to the global energy crisis, and other environmental and security challenges.

Steven M. Greer

To my mind, having a care and concern for others is the highest of the human qualities.

A thousand people will stop smoking today. Their funerals will be held sometime in the next three or four days.

C. Everett Koop

If we can get cold Coca-Cola and beer to every remote corner of Africa, it should not be impossible to do the same with drugs.

Cosmic love is absolutely Ruthless and Highly Indifferent: it teaches its lessons whether you like/ dislike them or not.

Every historic period has had its Cassandras. Our era is the first in which prophecies of doom stem from objective scientific analyses.

It is a blatant, open secret that this attack on the Twin Towers was done by George Bush himself.

The safest and most prudent of bets to lay money on is surprise. There is a very high probability that whatever astonishes us in biology today will turn out to be useable, and useful, tomorrow.

The thinnest people on the planet are those who eat the most carbohydrates.

Neal D. Barnard

A selective process goes on, whereby systems attract and keep those people whose attributes are such as to make them adapted to life in the system: Systems attract systems-people.

So, the bottom line is: if you want to live well and die well, you first have to find out what is really important to you and stick to it. With that, you can get out there and get yourself a life, a real one.

Gian Domenico Borasio

I have been studying inherited susceptibility of cancer through affected families. The goal is to identify genes that are involved in cancer development.

Frederick Pei Li