William J. Mayo –
US surgeon
The examining physician often hesitates to make
the necessary examination because it involves
soiling the finger.
Lancet: ()
It is poor government that does not realize that the
prolonged life, health and happiness of its people
are its greatest asset.
Journal of the American Medical Association: ()
Experience is the great teacher; unfortunately,
experience leaves mental scars, and scar tissue
contracts.
Journal of the American Medical Association: ()
Medical science aims at the truth and nothing but
the truth.
Journal of the Indiana Medical Association()
The aim of medicine is to prevent disease and
prolong life, the ideal of medicine is to eliminate
the need of a physician.
National Education Association: Proceedings and Addresses
: ()
... he saw some elegant limousines and remarked,
‘The surgeons have arrived.’ Then he saw some
cheaper cars and said, ‘The physicians are here,
too.’ A few scattered model-T Fords led him to
infer that there were pathologists present.
The Way of an InvestigatorCh. (Walter B. Cannon)
The surgeon is often intolerant and the internist
self sufficient.
Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics: ()
The glory of medicine is that it is constantly
moving forward, that there is always more to
learn.
National Education Association: Addresses and Proceedings
: ()
Truth is a constant variable. We seek it, we find it,
our viewpoint changes, and the truth changes to
meet it.
Annals of Surgery: ()
The church and the law deal with the yesterdays
of life; medicine deals with the tomorrows.
Collected Papers of the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation
: ()
It is better to think and sometimes to think wrong
than not to think at all.
Collected Papers of the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation
: ()
I think all of us who have worked years in the
profession understand that many very skilful
operators are not good surgeons.
Surgery, Gynaecology and Obstetrics: ()
Begin with an arresting sentence; close with
a strong summary; in between speak simply, clearly,
and always to the point; and above all be brief.
Quoted in The Doctors Mayo(Helen Clapesattle)
John Mayow –
English chemistAs a rule disease can scarcely keep pace with the
itch to scribble about it.
Da RachitidePt VJames Howard Means –
US physician and thyroid specialist, MassachussettsThe custom of giving patients appointments
weeks in advance, during which time their illness
may become seriously aggravated, seems to me to
fall short of the ideal doctor–patient relationship.
Daedalus: ()The most conspicuous change in the behaviour of
the doctor is that nowadays he is usually in such
a hurry that he is less accessible and less
communicative.
Daedalus: ()So much of the diagnostic process is now done
through technological procedures that the doctor
has lost some of his apparent omniscience,
prestige and mystique.
Daedalus: ()We have, inadvertently, trained our young doctors
to consider it a virtue to prolong life for the sole
purpose of prolonging it.
Daedalus: ()Sir Peter Medawar –
British scientist and Nobel laureateScience without the underpinning of hypotheses
is just kitchen arts.
AttributedHe does not realise that, instead of conceiving
him, his parents might have conceived any one of
a hundred thousand other children, all unlike
each other and unlike himself.Medieval maxim
In the presence of the patient, Latin is the
language.Ed Meese
Contemporary, US Attorney General ‒An expert is someone who is more than fifty miles
from home, has no responsibility for implementing
the advice he gives, and shows slides.
Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotationsp. ,
Fred Metcalf. Penguin Books, London ()Samuel J. Meltzer –
US physician and researcherThe fact that your patient gets well does not prove
that your diagnosis was correct.
Attributed . · .