The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.
ParacelsusRead
All drugs are poisons the benefit depends on the dosage.
Interpretation
The harmfulness of substances depends on how much is consumed; moderation is key.
Paracelsus highlights a fundamental principle of toxicology: substances that can be beneficial in small amounts can be harmful or lethal in larger doses. This underscores the importance of dosage and moderation in the use of medicines and other substances, indicating that the line between healing and harm is often very thin.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the safe use of medications.
The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.
Know that the philosopher has power over the stars, and not the stars over him.
The human body is vapor materialized by sunshine mixed with the life of the stars.
All things are poisons, for there is nothing without poisonous qualities. It is only the dose which makes a thing poison.
It should be forbidden and severely punished to remove cancer by cutting, burning, cautery, and other fiendish tortures. It is from nature that the disease comes, and from nature comes the cure, not from physicians.
Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.
I'm convinced that a controlled disrespect for authority is essential to a scientist. All the good experimental physicists I have known have had an intense curiosity that no Keep Out sign could mute. Physicists do, of course, show a healthy respect for High Voltage, Radiation, and Liquid Hydrogen signs. They are not reckless. I can think of only six who have been killed on the job.
Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest.
...It would be possible to make much more progress than has been made if the NCI knew its job better, knew how to make discoveries...The NCI really does not know how to make discoveries....So long as the NCI is not willing to follow up ideas that seem good to people who have had experience making discoveries, the work of the NCI is going to be pedestrian.
In fast moving fields like cancer, where doctors tailor treatments based on evidence that's constantly evolving, two years can be an eternity of waiting to learn about important science. For some patients, that interval can be fatal.
Modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food.
We must trust to nothing but facts: These are presented to us by Nature, and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation.
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