Medical Aphorisms

An aphorism is a tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion;
sometimes called an adage.

Here are some of my favorites:

" Life is short, and the art is long."

"Physicians are many in title, but few in number."

"No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means."

Dr. William Osler

"The greatest ignorance is the conceit that a man knows what he does not know."

"It is much more important to know what sort of patient has a disease than to know what sort of disease has a patient."

"The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism."

"Common sense in medical matters is rare, and usually in inverse ratio to the degree of education."

"Perhaps no sin so easily besets us as a sense of self-satisfied superiority to others."

"Keep a looking glass in your own heart, and the more carefully you scan your own frailties, the more tender you are for those of your fellow creatures."

"Silence is a powerful weapon."

"Beware of words - they are dangerous things.  They change color like the chameleon, and they return like a boomerang."

"The desire to take medicines is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals."

"The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head."

"Student, if you want a profession in which everything is certain you had better give up medicine."

"Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability."

"Errors of judgment must occur in the practice of an art which consists largely of balancing probabilities."

"Care more particularly for the individual patient than for the special features of the disease."

"Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants."

Dr. William J. Mayo

"Specialist:  a person who knows more and more, about less and less."

Dr. Francis W. Peabody

"There is no more contradiction between the science of medicine and the art of medicine than in the science of aeronautics and the art of flying."

"One of the essential qualities of the clinician is interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.

Dr. William Halstead

"The only weapon with which the unconscious patient can immediately retaliate upon the incompetent surgeon is hemorrhage."

"The lesser the indication, the greater the complication."

"If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

Dr. Kerr L. White

"Good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment."

Dr. William S. Reveno

"The patient in front of you in the exam room is not the average patient from whom statistics were compiled."

Dr. A. L. Bloomfield

"There are some patients whom we cannot help; there are none whom we cannot harm."

Galen

"Confidence and hope do more good than medicine."

Paracelsus

"The physician is only the servant of nature, not its master."

Anonymous

"The most valuable payment a patient can offer a physician is trust."

"You can pretend to know; you can pretend to care; but you cannot pretend to be there."

The medical community indicates that a program of downsizing average total daily caloric intake is maximally efficacious in the field of proactive weight-reduction methodologies.
Translation:   “Doctors say that the best way to lose weight is to eat less”.

Mark Twain

"Let us live life so that when we die, even the undertaker will be sorry."

Erma Bombeck

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."

Samuel Goldwyn

"A hospital is nowhere to be sick"

Dr. Chevalier Jackson

"In teaching the medical student, the primary requisite is keeping him awake."

Dr. Thomas E. Woodward

"When you hear hoof beats, look for horses, not zebras."

Dr. August Bier

"A smart mother often makes a better diagnosis than a poor doctor."