Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations

Lindsey E. Beaton –

US psychiatrist

We are physicians. It is a proud title. It carries
prerogatives; it carries privileges. Most of all it
carries accountability, not only for the future of a
great profession but for the very lives of our fellow
sufferers from the human condition.
Journal of Medical Education:()

Pierre de Beaumarchais –

French dramatist

That which distinguishes man from the beast is
drinking without being thirsty and making love at
all seasons.
Le Marriage de FigaroII. xxi

William Beaumont –

US physician

Of all the lessons which a young man entering
upon the profession of medicine needs to learn,
this is perhaps the first – that he should resist the
fascination of doctrines and hypotheses till he has
won the privilege of such studies by honest labour
and faithful pursuit of real and useful knowledge.
Notebook

Simone de Beauvoir –

French feminist writer

One is not born a woman, one becomes one.
The Second SexCh. ()

There is no such thing as a natural death: nothing
that happens to a man is ever natural, since his
presence calls the world into question.
A Very Easy Death

Samuel Becket –

Irish novelist and playwright

We are all born mad. Some remain so.
Waiting for GodotII ()

George Howard Bell 

Scottish physician (Dundee)

In the practice of medicine more mistakes are
made from lack of accurate observation and
deduction than from lack of knowledge.
Experimental Physiology

John Bell –

Edinburgh surgeon

Of the two forms of arthritis or articular
inflammation, rheumatism is the tax most
frequently paid by the vulgar dram and grog
drinker; gout, that incurred by the genteel and
sometimes the literary wine-bibber.
Lectures on Theory and Practice of PhysicLect. CLXVII

Peter Bell –

Professor of Surgery and Chairman of Research at Royal

College of Surgeons of England

There are few people who have not benefited in

some way, either directly or indirectly, from

advances made in surgical research.

Research Report . Royal College of Surgeons of

England

Nicholas de Belleville –

When you are called to a sick man, be sure you

know what the matter is—if you do not know,

nature can do a great deal better than you can

guess.

Help-Bringers‘Belleville’ by Fr B. Rogers

Hilaire Belloc –

French-born British poet, essayist and historian

Physicians of the Utmost Fame

Were called at once; but when they came

They answered, as they took their Fees,

‘There is no cure for this disease.’

Cautionary Tales for Children‘Henry King’ ()

The Microbe is so very small

You cannot make him out at all,

But many sanguine people hope

To see him through a microscope

More Beasts for Worse Children‘The Microbe’ ()

Stephen Vincent Benét –

US writer

So it was all modern and scientific and well

arranged. You could die very nearly as privately in

a modern hospital as you could in the Grand

Central Station, and with much better care.

Tales of our Time‘No Visitors’

Alan Bennet –

British dramatist and actor

There are more microbes per person than the

entire population of the world.

The Old CountryII

Billy Bennett –?

British comedian

You can’t part the skin of a sausage,

Or a dad from his fond son and heir.

And you can’t part the hair on

a bald-headed man,

For there’ll be no parting there.

Quoted from Bennett’s monologue Daddy()

Jeremy Bentham –

English philosopher and reformer

Nature has placed mankind under the

governances of two sovereign masters, pain and

pleasure.

Introduction to the Principles of Morals and LegislationCh. 

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