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16 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.

Peter Mere Latham quotes

  1. The practice of physic is jostled by quacks on the one side, and by science on the other.

    #1

  2. There is nothing so captivating as new knowledge.

    #2

  3. Truth in all its kinds is most difficult to win; and truth in medicine is the most difficult of all.

    #3

  4. Beware of language, for it is often a great cheat.

    #4

  5. The diagnosis of disease is often easy, often difficult, and often impossible.

    #5

  6. We should always presume the disease to be curable, until its own nature prove it otherwise.

    #6

  7. 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!

    #7

  8. Common sense is in medicine the master workman.

    #8

  9. It takes as much time and trouble to pull down a falsehood as to build up a truth.

    #9

  10. Faith and knowledge lean largely upon each other in the practice of medicine.

    #10

  11. It is no easy task to pick one's way from truth to truth through besetting errors.

    #11

  12. It would be a great thing to understand pain in all its meanings.

    #12

  13. 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.

    #13

  14. People in general have no notion of the sort and amount of evidence often needed to prove the simplest matter of fact.

    #14

  15. Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents.

    #15

  16. Perfect health, like perfect beauty, is a rare thing; and so, it seems, is perfect disease.

    #16