“Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand.”

The wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings. Let food be your medicine.

The brain of man, like that of all animals is double, being parted down its centre by a thin membrane. For this reason pain is not always felt in the same part of the head, but sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, and occasionally all over.

Wherefore the heart and the diaphragm are particularly sensitive, they have nothing to do, however, with the operations of the understanding, but of all these the brain is the cause.

It’s far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has.

The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.

I also maintain that clear knowledge of natural science must be acquired, in the first instance, through mastery of medicine alone.

He who does not understand astrology is not a doctor but a fool.

I have clearly recorded this: for one can learn good lessons also from what has been tried but clearly has not succeeded, when it is clear why it has not succeeded.

Through seven figures come sensations for a man; there is hearing for sounds, sight for the visible, nostril for smell, tongue for pleasant or unpleasant tastes, mouth for speech, body for touch, passages outwards and inwards for hot or cold breath. Through these come knowledge or lack of it.

If you are not your own doctor, you are a fool.

Look well to the spine for the cause of disease.

The chief virtue that language can have is clarity.

I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.

When doing everything according to indications, although things may not turn out agreeably to indication, we should not change to another while the original appearances remain.

Those diseases which medicines do not cure, iron cures; those which iron cannot cure, fire cures; and those which fire cannot cure, are to be reckoned wholly incurable.

The human soul develops up to the time of death.