Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

About Alexis Carrel

Alexis Carrelwas a French surgeon and biologist who spent most of his scientific career in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques.

More about the author

More quotes from Alexis Carrel

Those who desire to rise as high as our human condition allows, must renounce intellectual pride, the omnipotence of clear thinking, belief in the absolute power of logic.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

The quality of life is more important than life itself.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Like hatred, jealousy is forbidden by the laws of life because it is essentially destructive.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one’s day and every night to examine the results obtained.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Comforts and syphilis are the greatest enemies of mankind.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

In man, the things which are not measurable are more important than those which are measurable.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

The atmosphere of libraries, lecture rooms and laboratories is dangerous to those who shut themselves up in them too long. It separates us from reality like a fog.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

The love of beauty in its multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need to take advice and to receive help from other people.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Hard conditions of life are indispensable to bringing out the best in human personality.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for comprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Religion brings to man an inner strength, spiritual light, and ineffable peace.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist

Everyone makes a greater effort to hurt other people than to help himself.

Alexis Carrel

French surgeon and biologist