Rufus of Ephesus AD–
Roman physician
I believe it is important to be informed of the
nature of the disease in each individual patient,
because we are not all formed in the same fashion,
but we differ markedly from one another in many
respects.
On the Interrogation of the Patient
Benjamin Rush –
US politician and physician
Let us show the world that a difference of opinion
upon medical subjects is not incompatible with
medical friendships; and in so doing, let us throw
the whole odium of the hostility of physicians to
each other upon their competition for business
and money.
Letter to Dr David Hosack, August ()
John Ruskin –
British art critic, reformer, and writer
They, on the whole, desire to cure the sick; and, if
they are good doctors, and the choice were fairly
put to them, would rather cure their patient and
lose their fee, than kill him, and get it.
The Crown of Wild Olive
The work of science is to substitute facts for
appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.
Stones of VeniceVol. III, Ch. II
Dora Russell (née Black) c.–
Wife of Bertrand Russell
We want far better reasons for having children
than not knowing how to prevent them.
Hypatia or Women and KnowledgeCh. ()
Bertrand Russell –
British philosopher
One of the symptoms of approaching nervous
breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly
important. If I were a medical man, I should
prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered
his work important.
The Autobiography of Bertrand RussellVol. II, Ch.
(–)
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries
are those who forego ordinary pleasures
themselves and find compensation in interfering
with the pleasures of others.
Sceptical Essays
Love as a relation between men and women was
ruined by the desire to make sure of the legitimacy
of the children.
Marriage and Morals
Drunkenness is temporary suicide: the happiness
that it brings is merely negative, a momentary
cessation of unhappiness.
Attributed
William Russell –
Scottish pathologist and physician, EdinburghThe diagnosis of appendicitis requires the skilled
palpation to which the physician is trained and
the surgeon may be capable.
Quoted in Dictionary of Medical Eponyms(nd edn), p. ,
Firkin and Whitworth. The Parthenon, Lancashire, UK
()Russian proverbs
Drink a glass of wine after your soup and you steal
a rouble from the doctor.A word of kindness is better than a fat pie.He who scratches a scar is wounded twice.Simply imagine that it’s not your child, but
someone else’s. Everybody knows how to bring up
other people’s children.Ira Rutkow –
US hernia surgeon and medical historianIf God operated on a hernia patient who is being
paid to be off work, he would still be unable to
work for six weeks or more.
Address at a Hernia Conference, Newport, Wales, May
()John A. Ryle –
English professor of medicineThe necessary but too rapid subdivision into
specialisms and growing competition in every
branch have, it would seem, been good for the
technique but bad for the soul of medicine.
Fears May Be LiarsCh. Saadi (Muslih-ud-Din) –
Persian poet
When belly with bad pains doth swell,
It matters nought what else goes well.
GulistanIII.(transl. E. Arnold)Saki (H. H. Munro) –
British novelist and short story writer
‘When I was younger boys of your age used to be
nice and innocent.’
‘Now we are only nice. One must specialise these
days.’
The Complete Work of Sakip. . Penguin Books, London
()School of Salerno –
For ointment juice of Onyons is assign’d
To heads whose haire falls faster than it grows.
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum(transl. by Sir John
Harington as The Englishman’s Doctor)
Drink not much wine, sup light, and soon arise.
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum(transl. by Sir John
Harington as The Englishman’s Doctor) ·