Swiss Physician Quotes

Paracelsus

Rolf M. Zinkernagel

The great virtues that lie hidden in nature would never have been revealed if alchemy had not uncovered them and made them visible. Take a tree, for example; a man sees it in the winter, but he does not know what it is, he does not know what it conceals within itself, until summer comes and discloses the buds, the flowers, the fruit [...] Similarly the virtues in things remain concealed to man, unless the alchemist disclose them, as the summer reveals the nature of the tree.

People are reluctant to talk about old age and death because they are afraid of emotion, and they willingly avoid the things they feel most emotional about, though these are the very things they most need to talk about.

Let us not be attached to systems, but to truth; and when Nature speaks, let us listen to her voice in preference to that of a Stahl or a Lavoissier, a Descartes or a Newton. Whatever may be the result of our experiments, we shall profit by them: as we run the risqué of losing nothing but error, let us hasten to subject ourselves to that loss.

Christopher Girtanner

In science there are collectors, classifiers, compulsory tidiers-up and permanent contesters, detectives, some artists and many artisans, there are poet-scientists and philosophers and even a few mystics.

Rolf M. Zinkernagel