Hippocrates Quotations

Make a habit of two things: to help; or at least to do no harm.

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food

Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

What medicines do not heal, the lance will; what the lance does not heal, fire will.

Keep a watch also on the faults of the patients, which often make them lie about the taking of things prescribed.

Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion. The former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm.

It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.

It's far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has.

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

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

A physician without a knowledge of Astrology has no right to call himself a physician.

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.

Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.

Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand.

Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.

If someone wishes for good health, one must first ask oneself if he is ready to do away with the reasons for his illness. Only then is it possible to help him.

Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear.

Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness.

The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it

All disease starts in the gut.

Positive health requires a knowledge of man's primary constitution and of the powers of various foods, both those natural to them and those resulting from human skill. But eating alone is not enough for health. There must also be exercise, of which the effects must likewise be known. The combination of these two things makes regimen, when proper attention is given to the season of the year, the changes of the wind, the age of the individual, and the situation of his home. If there is any deficiency in food or exercise, the body will fall sick.

The physician treats, but nature heals.

If you are not your own doctor, you are a fool.

Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.

Walking is a man's best medicine.

Each of the substances of a man's diet acts upon his body and changes it in some way and upon these changes his whole life depends.

Just as food causes chronic disease, it can be the most powerful cure

Your foods shall be your 'remedies,' and your 'remedies' shall be your foods.

All parts of the body which have a function, if used in moderation and exercised in labors in which each is accustomed, become thereby healthy, well developed and age more slowly, but if unused they become liable to disease, defective in growth and age quickly.

Men ought to know that from the brain and from the brain only arise our pleasures, joys, laughter, and jests as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs and tears. ... It is the same thing which makes us mad or delirious, inspires us with dread and fear, whether by night or by day, brings us sleeplessness, inopportune mistakes, aimless anxieties, absent-mindedness and acts that are contrary to habit...

The way to health is to have an aromatic bath and a scented massage every day.

The function of protecting and developing health must rank even above that of restoring it when it is impaired.

Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future; practice these acts. As to diseases, make a habit of two things--to help, or at least to do no harm.

Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can heal the patient with food.

Opposites are cures for opposites.

Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases

It is most necessary to know the nature of the spine. One or more vertebrae may or may not go out of place very much and if they do, they are likely to produce serious complications and even death, if not properly adjusted. Many diseases are related to the spine.

Sport is a preserver of health.

A natural talent is required; for, when Nature opposes, everything else is in vain; but when Nature leads the way to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes place, which the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection, becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He must also bring to the task a love of labor and perseverance, so that the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and abundant fruits.

Even when all is known, the care of a man is not yet complete, because eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise. For food and exercise, while possessing opposite qualities, yet work together to produce health.

Life is short, and the Art long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate.

Healing in a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

The wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings. Let food be your medicine.

Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations. And by this, in an especial manner, we acquire wisdom and knowledge, and see and hear and know what are foul and what are fair, what are bad and what are good, what are sweet and what are unsavory…. And by the same organ we become mad and delirious, and fears and terrors assail us….All these things we endure from the brain when it is not healthy….In these ways I am of the opinion that the brain exercises the greatest power in the man.

All diseases begin in the gut.

The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.

Those diseases which medicines do not cure, iron cures; those which iron cannot cure, fire cures; and those which fire cannot cure, are to be reckoned wholly incurable.

From nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations

The brain of man, like that of all animals is double, being parted down its centre by a thin membrane. For this reason pain is not always felt in the same part of the head, but sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, and occasionally all over.

All disease begins in the gut.

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

Medicine is of all the Arts the most noble; but, owing to the ignorance of those who practice it, and of those who, inconsiderately, form a judgment of them, it is at present behind all the arts.

To really know is science; to merely believe you know is ignorance.

Eunuchs do not take the gout, nor become bald.

Health is the greatest of human blessings.

The natural force within each of us is that greatest healer of all.

Foolish the doctor who despises the knowledge acquired by the ancients.

Anyone wishing to study medicine must master the art of massage.

We must turn to nature itself, to the observations of the body in health and in disease to learn the truth.

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.

The physician must be able to tell the antecedents, know the present, and foretell the future — must mediate these things, and have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm.

I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.

The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.

Many admire, few know.

It is more important to know the person who has the condition than it is to know the condition the person has.

Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.

In acute diseases the physician must conduct his inquiries in the following way. First he must examine the face of the patient, and see whether it is like the faces of healthy people, and especially whether it is like its usual self. Such likeness will be the best sign, and the greatest unlikeness will be the most dangerous sign. The latter will be as follows. Nose sharp, eyes hollow, temples sunken, ears cold and contracted with their lobes turned outwards, the skin about the face hard and tense and parched, the colour of the face as a whole being yellow or black.

Wherefore the heart and the diaphragm are particularly sensitive, they have nothing to do, however, with the operations of the understanding, but of all these the brain is the cause.

Divine is the task to relieve pain

I have clearly recorded this: for one can learn good lessons also from what has been tried but clearly has not succeeded, when it is clear why it has not succeeded.

Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future.

I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.

Primum non nocerum. (First do no harm)

He who does not understand astrology is not a doctor but a fool.

Rest as soon as there is pain.

Some patients, though conscious that their condition is perilous, recover their health simply through their contentment with the goodness of the physician.

The human soul develops up to the time of death.

Nature itself is the best physician.

In all abundance there is lack.

Who could have foretold, from the structure of the brain, that wine could derange its functions?

Look well to the spine for the cause of disease.

That which is used - develops. That which is not used wastes away.

Through seven figures come sensations for a man; there is hearing for sounds, sight for the visible, nostril for smell, tongue for pleasant or unpleasant tastes, mouth for speech, body for touch, passages outwards and inwards for hot or cold breath. Through these come knowledge or lack of it.

Physicians are many in title but very few in reality.

A wise man ought to realize that health is his most valuable possession.

It is better not to apply any treatment in cases of occult cancer; for if treated (by surgery), the patients die quickly; but if not treated, they hold out for a long time.

War is the only proper school of the surgeon.

I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion.

Things that are holy are revealed only to men who are holy....

Life is short, the art long.

Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.

I also maintain that clear knowledge of natural science must be acquired, in the first instance, through mastery of medicine alone.

It is believed by experienced doctors that the heat which oozes out of the hand, on being applied to the sick, is highly salutary. It has often appeared, while I have been soothing my patients, as if there was a singular property in my hands to pull and draw away from the affected parts aches and diverse impurities, by laying my hand upon the place, and extending my fingers toward it. Thus it is known to some of the learned that health may be implanted in the sick by certain gestures, and by contact, as some diseases may be communicated from one to another.

A physician who is a lover of wisdom is the equal to a god.

To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.