There are some arts which to those that possess them are painful, but to those that use them are helpful, a common good to laymen, but to those that practise them grievous. Of such arts there is one which the Greeks call medicine. For the medical man sees terrible sights, touches unpleasant things, and the misfortunes of others bring a harvest of sorrows that are peculiarly his; but the sick by means of the art rid themselves of the worst of evils, disease, suffering, pain and death.

Physicians are many in title but very few in reality.

Any man who is intelligent must, on considering that health is of the utmost value to human beings, have the personal understanding necessary to help himself in diseases, and be able to understand and to judge what physicians say and what they administer to his body, being versed in each of these matters to a degree reasonable for a layman.

Time is that wherein there is opportunity, and opportunity is that wherein there is no great time.

Life is short, science is long; opportunity is elusive, experiment is dangerous, judgement is difficult.

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.

The chief virtue that language can have is clarity.