Avicenna Quotes

There are no incurable diseases — only the lack of will. There are no worthless herbs — only the lack of knowledge.

Width of life is more important than length of life.

The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.

The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.

Is it the fault of wine if a fool drinks it and goes stumbling into darkness?

An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.

The more brilliant the lightning, the quicker it disappears.

I [prefer] a short life with width to a narrow one with length.

Medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health.

The different sorts of madness are innumerable.

In God alone, essence (what He is) and existence (that he is) coincide.

That whose existence is necessary must necessarily be one essence.

Those who deny the first principle should be flogged or burned until they admit that it is not the same thing to be burned and not burned, or whipped and not whipped.

As to the mental essence, we find it in infants devoid of every mental form.

A horse is simply a horse.

The physical signs of measles are nearly the same as those of smallpox, but nausea and inflammation is more severe, though the pains in the back are less.

Leeches should be kept a day before applying them. They should be squeezed to make them eject the contents of their stomachs.

Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.

Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned.