Sydenham Quotes & Sayings

Gout, unlike any other disease, kills more rich men than poor, more wise men than simple. Great kings, emperors, generals, admirals and philosophers have all died of gout. — Thomas Sydenham

Among the remedies which it has pleased Almighty God to give to man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium. — Thomas Sydenham

The art of medicine was to be properly learned only from its practice and its exercise. — Thomas Sydenham

A man is as old as his arteries. — Thomas Sydenham

This is all very fine, but it won't do-Anatomy-botany-Nonsense! Sir, I know an old woman in Covent Garden, who understands botany better, and as for anatomy, my butcher can dissect a joint full as well; no, young man, all that is stuff; you must go to the bedside, it is there alone you can learn disease!
Comment to Hans Sloane on Robert Boyle's letter of introduction describing Sloane as a 'ripe scholar, a good botanist, a skilful anatomist'. — Thomas Sydenham

The Commonwealth of Learning is not at this time without Master-Builders, whose mighty Designs, in advancing the Sciences, will leave lasting Monuments to the Admiration of Posterity; But every one must not hope to be a Boyle, or a Sydenham; and in an Age that produces such Masters, as the Great-Huygenius, and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with some other of that Strain; 'tis Ambition enough to be employed as an Under-Labourer in clearing Ground a little, and removing some of the Rubbish, that lies in the way to Knowledge. — John Locke

In writing the history of a disease, every philosophical hypothesis whatsoever, that has previously occupied the mind of the author, should lie in abeyance. — Thomas Sydenham

They love without measure those whom they will soon hate without reason. — Thomas Sydenham

tell me what made her think this. Still to — Stuart Sydenham

I watched what method Nature might take, with intention of subduing the symptom by treading in her footsteps. — Thomas Sydenham

Read Don Quixote; it is a very good book; I still read it frequently. — Thomas Sydenham

We are overwhelmed as it is, with an infinite abundance of vaunted medicaments, and here they add another one. — Thomas Sydenham

The arrival of a good clown exercises a more beneficial influence upon the health of a town than of twenty asses laden with drugs. — Thomas Sydenham

...that the doctor being himself a mortal man, should be diligent and tender in relieving his suffering patients, inasmuch as he himself must one day be a like sufferer. — Thomas Sydenham

As no man can say who it was that first invented the use of clothes and houses against the inclemency of the weather, so also can no investigator point out the origin of Medicine - mysterious as the source of the Nile. — Thomas Sydenham

For humble individuals like myself, there is one poor comfort, which is this, viz. that gout, unlike any other disease, kills more rich men than poor, more wise men than simple. — Thomas Sydenham

I confidently affirm that the greater part of those who are supposed to have died of gout, have died of the medicine rather than the disease - a statement in which I am supported by observation. — Thomas Sydenham

Fever itself is Nature's instrument. — Thomas Sydenham

Acute [diseases] meaning those of which God is the author, chronic meaning those that originate in ourselves. — Thomas Sydenham

The generality have considered that disease is but a confused and disordered effort in Nature, thrown down from her proper state, and defending herself in vain. — Thomas Sydenham

(Refresher course I just completed twenty minutes ago: In the Koran, it is Ismail, Abraham's elder son by Sarah's maidservant Hagar, whom Sarah gave to Abraham as concubine to bear them a child, that Abraham takes up the mountain with plans to sacrifice. In the Old Testament it's Isaac, Abraham's younger son by Sarah herself, Abraham takes up the mountain. In this version Sarah sees Ismail playing with Isaac long before the trip up the mountain, becomes jealous about her own son's inheritance - even though the whole Hagar-Abraham thing was her idea to begin with - and forces Abraham to send Hagar and Ismail away.) — Claire Sydenham

Physick, says Sydenham, is not to bee learned by going to Universities, but hee is for taking apprentices; and says one had as good send a man to Oxford to learn shoemaking as practising physick. — Thomas Sydenham

Nothing in medicine is so insignificant as to merit attention. — Thomas Sydenham

It is my nature to thin where others read. — Thomas Sydenham

My father was a trained accountant, a BCom from Sydenham College and a self-taught violinist. In the 1920s, when he was in his teens, he heard a great violinist, Jascha Heifetz, and he was so inspired listening to him that he bought himself a violin, and with a little help from an Italian teacher, he learned to play it. — Zubin Mehta

Lastly, he must remember that he himself hath no exemption from the common lot, but that he is bound by the same laws of mortality, and liable to the same ailments and afflictions with his fellows. — Thomas Sydenham

Gout produces calculus in the kidney ... the patient has frequently to entertain the painful speculation as to whether gout or stone be the worst disease. Sometimes the stone, on passing, kills the patient, without waiting for the gout. — Thomas Sydenham

Disease is nothing else but an attempt on the part of the body to rid itself of morbific matter. — Thomas Sydenham

We may ascertain the worth of the human race, since for its sake God's Only-begotten Son became man, and thereby ennobled the nature that he took upon him. — Thomas Sydenham