Alexis Carrel Quotes

Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind, and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.

Those who don't learn to fight worry, die young.

Religion brings to man an inner strength, spiritual light, and ineffable peace.

Man offers himself to God. He stands before Him like the canvas before the painter or the marble before the sculptor. At the same time he asks for His grace, expresses his needs and those of his brothers in suffering. Such a type of prayer demands complete renovation. The modest, the ignorant, and the poor are more capable of this self-denial than the rich and the intellectual.

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard prudently against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us.

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.

The modern city consists of...dark, narrow streets full of gasoline fumes, coal dust, and toxic gasses, torn by the noise.

Men grow when inspired by a high purpose, when contemplating vast horizons. The sacrifice of oneself is not very difficult for one burning with the passion for a great adventure.

Intelligence is almost useless to the person whose only quality it is.

In joy or sorrow, health or sickness, prosperity or the reverse, the effort must still continue. One must rise after every fall and gradually acquire courage, faith, the will to succeed and the capacity to love.

The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrable as that of secreting glands. Its results can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy, greater intellectual vigor, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human relationship.

Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men lifted out of sickness by the power of prayer. It is the only power in the world that overcomes the laws of nature.

Everyone makes a greater effort to hurt other people than to help himself.

One must train oneself, by small and frequent efforts, to dominate one's feelings.

The best way of increasing the [average] intelligence of scientists would be to reduce their number.

The secret of life is to be found in life itself, in the full organic, intellectual and spiritual activities of our body.

The love of beauty in its multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.

As to virtue . . . it is an act of the will, a habit which increases the quantity, intensity and quality of life. It builds up, strengthens and vivifies personality.

Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for apprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.

Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.

Jesus knows our world. He does not disdain us like the God of Aristotle. We can speak to Him and He answers us. Although He is a person like ourselves, He is God and transcends all things.

Like hatred, jealousy is forbidden by the laws of life because it is essentially destructive.

Life leaps like a geyser for those willing to drill through the rock of inertia.

Patients have been cured almost instantaneously of...lupus...,cancer ...,ulcers..., tuberculosis ...In a few seconds, at most a few hours, the symptoms disappear and the anatomic lesions mend. The miracle is characterized by extreme acceleration of the normal process of healing.

The atmosphere of libraries, lecture rooms and laboratories is dangerous to those who shut themselves up in them too long. It separates us from reality like a fog.

If the doctor of today does not become the dietician of tomorrow, the dietician of today will become the doctor of tomorrow.

Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate....It supplies us with a flow of sustaining power in our daily lives.

...the influence of the factory upon the physiological and mental state of the workers has been completely neglected.

Scientific civilisation has destroyed the soul of the world.

Comforts and syphilis are the greatest enemies of mankind.

All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need to take advice and to receive help from other people.

All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.

A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.

Logic never attracts men to the point of carrying them away.

Hard conditions of life are indispensable to bringing out the best in human personality.

More than half of all great remedies known to medical history have come from empiricists...'irregulars'...of no or little scientific training. There is no reason to believe that conditions have essentially changed.

It seems that the increased number of scientific workers, their being split up into groups whose studies are limited to a small subject, and over-specialization have brought about a shrinking of intelligence. There is no doubt that the quality of any human group decreases when the number of the individuals composing this group increases beyond certain limits... The best way to increase the intelligence of scientists would be to decrease their number.

The search for God is indeed, an entirely personal undertaking.... the most audacious adventure that one can dare.

Enormous amounts of money are spent for publicity. As a result, large quantities of alimentary and pharmaceutical products, at the least useless, and often harmful, have become a necessity for civilized men.

If you make a habit of sincere prayer, your life will be very noticeably and profoundly altered. Prayer stamps with its indelible mark our actions and demeanor. A tranquillity of bearing, a facial and bodily repose, are observed in those whose inner lives are thus enriched. Within the depths of consciousness a flame kindles. And man sees himself. He discovers his selfishness, his silly pride, his fears, his greeds, his blunders. He develops a sense of moral obligation, intellectual humility. Thus begins a journey of the soul toward the realm of grace.

There are no watertight compartments in our inmost nature.

The quality of life is more important than life itself.

Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.

The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one's day and every night to examine the results obtained.

In man, the things which are not measurable are more important than those which are measurable.

To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know

Prayer, like radium, is a luminous and self-generating form of energy.