Marie de Sévingé –
French writer of letters
It is sometimes best to slip over thoughts and not
go to the bottom of them.
Letter to her daughter
William Shakespeare –
English author and playwright
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven.
All’s Well That Ends WellI.
A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good liv’ry of
honour.
All’s Well That Ends WellIV. v.
With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover.
A Midsummer Night’s DreamV. I.
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eye, sans taste, sans everything.
As You Like ItII.
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will
seize the doctor too.
CymbelineV.
He that sleeps feels no toothache.
CymbelineV.
Though this be madness, yet there is method
in it.
HamletII.
To sleep—perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
HamletIII. i.
Is it not strange that desire should so many years
outlive performance?
Henry IV, Part TwoII.
If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help
make the diseases.
Henry IV, Part TwoII. –
You shall digest the venom of your spleen, Though
it do split you.
Julius CaesarIV. iii.
Your bum is the greatest thing about you.
MacbethII. i. –
It provokes the desire, but it takes away the
performance. Therefore much drink may be said to
be an equivocator with lechery.
MacbethII.
When all’s done, you look but on a stool.
MacbethIII. . –
Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d.
MacbethV. viii.
The labour we delight in physics pain.
MacbethV. viii.
The miserable have no other medicine.
But only hope.
Measure for MeasureIII. i. For there was never philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently.
Much Ado about NothingV. Eye is the window of the mind.
Richard II.iiiHe that is stricken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
Romeo and JulietI. i. There’s no time for a man to recover his hair that
grows bald by nature.
The Comedy of ErrorsII. ii.
Thou cold sciatica,
Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
As lamely as their manners.
Timon of AthensIV. I.
He will be the physician that should be the
patient.
Troilus and Cressida
I would there were no age between ten and three-
and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest,
for there is nothing in the between but getting
wenches with child, wronging the ancientry,
stealing, fighting.
The Winter’s TaleIII. iii. George Bernard Shaw
–
Irish-born playwright
I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the
illness worth while.
Back to MethuselahPt II
Spend all you have before you die: and do not
outlive yourself.
Take utmost care to get well born and well
brought up.
From his Preface on Doctors published with The Doctor’s
Dilemma()
All professions are conspiracies against
the laity.
From his Preface on Doctors published with The Doctor’s
Dilemma()
Medical science is as yet very imperfectly
differentiated from common curemongering
witchcraft.
From his Preface on Doctors published with The Doctor’s
Dilemma()
Even the fact that doctors themselves die of
the very diseases they profess to cure passes
unnoticed.
From his Preface on Doctors published with The Doctor
Dilemma()
The most tragic thing in the world is a sick
doctor.
From his Preface on Doctors published with The
Doctor’s Dilemma() ·