Hippocrates Quotes

79 Sourced Quotes

The physician must have at his command a certain ready wit, as dourness is repulsive both to the healthy and the sick.

Hippocrates
I have clearly recorded this: for one can learn good lessons also from what has been tried but clearly has not succeeded, when it is clear why it has not succeeded.

Hippocrates
The forms of diseases are many and the healing of them is manifold.

Hippocrates
Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.

Hippocrates
There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Hippocrates
Life is short, the art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult.

Hippocrates
When two pains occur together, but not in the same place, the more violent obscures the other.

Hippocrates
The physician must be able to tell the antecedents, know the present, and foretell the future — must mediate these things, and have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm.

Hippocrates
The excrement is best which is soft and consistent, is passed at the hour which was customary to the patient when in health, in quantity proportionate to the ingesta; for when the passages are such, the lower belly is in a healthy state.

Hippocrates
Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand.

Hippocrates
Extreme remedies are most appropriate for extreme diseases.

Hippocrates
When doing everything according to indications, although things may not turn out agreeably to indication, we should not change to another while the original appearances remain.

Hippocrates
The prime object of the physician in the whole art of medicine should be to cure that which is diseased; and if this can be accomplished in various ways, the least troublesome should be selected; for this is more becoming a good man, and one well skilled in the art, who does not covet popular coin of base alloy.

Hippocrates
A natural talent is required; for, when Nature opposes, everything else is in vain; but when Nature leads the way to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes place, which the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection, becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He must also bring to the task a love of labor and perseverance, so that the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and abundant fruits.

Hippocrates
Life is short, science is long; opportunity is elusive, experiment is dangerous, judgement is difficult.

Hippocrates
Wherefore the heart and the diaphragm are particularly sensitive, they have nothing to do, however, with the operations of the understanding, but of all these the brain is the cause.

Hippocrates
Any man who is intelligent must, on considering that health is of the utmost value to human beings, have the personal understanding necessary to help himself in diseases, and be able to understand and to judge what physicians say and what they administer to his body, being versed in each of these matters to a degree reasonable for a layman.

Hippocrates
In treating fractures and dislocations, the physician must make the extension as straight as possible, for this is the most natural direction. But if it inclines to either side, it should rather turn to that of pronation, for there is thus less harm than if it be towards supination.

Hippocrates
Conclusions which are merely verbal cannot bear fruit, only those do which are based on demonstrated fact. For affirmation and talk are deceptive and treacherous. Wherefore one must hold fast to facts in generalizations also, and occupy oneself with facts persistently, if one is to acquire that ready and infallible habit which we call "the art of medicine."

Hippocrates
I swear by Apollo the physician, by Asclepius, by Health, by Panacea and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgement, this oath and this indenture.

Hippocrates