Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.

Meaning of the quote

Medicine is more than just making medicines and bandages. It's also about understanding how life works. Doctors need to know how the body functions before they can help people get better.

About Paracelsus

Paracelsus, a Swiss physician, alchemist, and philosopher of the German Renaissance, was a pioneer in the medical revolution of his time. He is known as the “father of toxicology” and had a significant influence as a prophet or diviner, with his “Prognostications” being studied by Rosicrucians in the 17th century.

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More quotes from Paracelsus

Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of gold and silver. For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

What the eyes perceive in herbs or stones or trees is not yet a remedy; the eyes see only the dross.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

For one country is different from another; its earth is different, as are its stones, wines, bread, meat, and everything that grows and thrives in a specific region.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

This is alchemy, and this is the office of Vulcan; he is the apothecary and chemist of the medicine.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

But is not He who created it for the sake of the sick body more than the remedy? And is not He who cures the soul, which is more than the body, greater?

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Often the remedy is deemed the highest good because it helps so many.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

The dreams which reveal the supernatural are promises and messages that God sends us directly: they are nothing but His angels, His ministering spirits , who usually appear to us when we are in a great predicament.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

For it is we who must pray for our daily bread, and if He grants it to us, it is only through our labour, our skill and preparation.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Dreams are not without meaning wherever thay may come from-from fantasy, from the elements, or from other inspiration.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

The dose makes the poison.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Nature also forges man, now a gold man, now a silver man, now a fig man, now a bean man.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

However, anyone to whom this happens should not leave his room upon awakening, should speak to no-one, but remain alone and sober until everything comes back to him, and he recalls the dream.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Dreams must be heeded and accepted. For a great many of them come true.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Once a disease has entered the body, all parts which are healthy must fight it: not one alone, but all. Because a disease might mean their common death. Nature knows this; and Nature attacks the disease with whatever help she can muster.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

The interpretation of dreams is a great art.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

If we want to make a statement about a man’s nature on the basis of his physiognomy, we must take everything into account; it is in his distress that a man is tested, for then his nature is revealed.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

What sense would it make or what would it benfit a physician if he discovered the origin of the diseases but could not cure or alleviate them?

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Medicine rests upon four pillars – philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, and ethics.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

The physician must give heed to the region in which the patient lives, that is to say, to its type and peculiarities.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

From time immemorial artistic insights have been revealed to artists in their sleep and in dreams, so that at all times they ardently desired them.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

Although Alchemy has now fallen into contempt, and is even considered a thing of the past, the physicain should not be influenced by such judgements.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)

This process is alchemy: its founder is the smith Vulcan.

Paracelsus

Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493-1541)