Peter Mere Latham Quotes
Peter Mere Latham reflects on the tug-of-war between science and charlatans, the need for personal balance, and the mystery of pain.
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The practice of physic is jostled by quacks on the one side, and by science on the other.
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There is nothing so captivating as new knowledge.
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Truth in all its kinds is most difficult to win; and truth in medicine is the most difficult of all.
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Beware of language, for it is often a great cheat.
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The diagnosis of disease is often easy, often difficult, and often impossible.
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We should always presume the disease to be curable, until its own nature prove it otherwise.
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Fortunate, indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself, and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use, be it great or be it small!
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Common sense is in medicine the master workman.
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It takes as much time and trouble to pull down a falsehood as to build up a truth.
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Faith and knowledge lean largely upon each other in the practice of medicine.
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It is no easy task to pick one's way from truth to truth through besetting errors.
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It would be a great thing to understand pain in all its meanings.
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It is the great mystery of life itself which is at the bottom of all the mysterious language we are obliged to employ concerning it.
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People in general have no notion of the sort and amount of evidence often needed to prove the simplest matter of fact.
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Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents.
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Perfect health, like perfect beauty, is a rare thing; and so, it seems, is perfect disease.
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Remedies, indeed, are our great analysers of disease.