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Anonymous
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unspecified unspecified.
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Science Quotes by Anonymous (308 quotes)
Gnothi seauton.
Know thyself.
Know thyself.
— Anonymous
From The Temple of Apollo at Delphi; Pausanias 10.24.1; Juvenal 11.27.
Hie locus est ubi mars gaudet succurere vitae.
This place is where death rejoices to come to the aid of life.
This place is where death rejoices to come to the aid of life.
— Anonymous
In the anatomical dissection theatre of the University of Bologna.
Ihre Arbeit ist gekrönt worden mit dem Nobel Preis für Otto Hahn.
Her work has been crowned by the Nobel Prize for Otto Hahn.
Her work has been crowned by the Nobel Prize for Otto Hahn.
— Anonymous
Said to observe that she did not herself receive recognition of her research.
In scientia veritas, in arte honestas.
In science truth, in art honour.
In science truth, in art honour.
— Anonymous
In Jon R. Stone, The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations (2005), 170.
Magna opera Domini exquisita in omnes voluntates eius.
The works of the Lord are great; sought out of all those that have pleasure therein.
The works of the Lord are great; sought out of all those that have pleasure therein.
— Anonymous
Over the entrance to the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
Medicus naturae minister, non magister
The doctor is the servant, not master for teaching Nature.
The doctor is the servant, not master for teaching Nature.
— Anonymous
In Alfred J. Schauer, Ethics in Medicine (2001), 119.
Natura nihil agit frustra.
Nature does nothing in vain.
Nature does nothing in vain.
— Anonymous
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 290:9.
Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu.
There is nothing in the mind that has not previously been in the senses.
There is nothing in the mind that has not previously been in the senses.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Post coitum omne animal triste.
After coition every animal is sad.
After coition every animal is sad.
— Anonymous
Post-classical saying.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
After this, therefore because of this.
After this, therefore because of this.
— Anonymous
Latin Proverb.
Tierchemie ist Schmierchemie.
Animal chemistry is messy chemistry.
Animal chemistry is messy chemistry.
— Anonymous
Quoted without source in Joseph S. Feuton, Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 57.
[Student describing Niels Bohr's main gift, the ability to synthesize:] Like Socrates, he wages a fight to bring harmony out of chaos and diversity.
— Anonymous
Quoted in Bill Becker, 'Pioneer of the Atom', New York Times Sunday Magazine (20 Oct 1957), 52.
A bacteriologist is a man whose conversation always starts with the germ of an idea.
— Anonymous
Quoted in M. Goran, A Treasury of Science Jokes (1986), 37.
A beautiful blonde is chemically three-fourths water, but what lovely surface tension.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 127.
A biophysicist talks physics to the biologists and biology to the physicists, but when he meets another biophysicist, they just discuss women.
— Anonymous
In Alan Lindsay Mackay , A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (2nd Ed., 1991), 4.
A consultant is a man sent in after the battle to bayonet the wounded.
— Anonymous
Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations (2001),.60.
A doctor is the only man who can suffer from good health.
— Anonymous
In Edward Jewitt Wheeler, et al., The Literary Digest (1931),13.
A doctor who cannot take a good history and a patient who cannot give one are in danger of giving and receiving bad treatment.
— Anonymous
In Paul Dudley White , Clues in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Disease (1956), Introduction.
A faithful friend is the medicine of life.
— Anonymous
A farmer believes what goes down must come up.
— Anonymous
A genius is one who shoots at something no one else can see—and hits it.
— Anonymous
In M. P. Singh, Quote Unquote (2007), 148.
A geologist is a fault-finder.
— Anonymous
Quoted in M. Goran, A Treasury of Science Jokes (1986),73.
A graduate with a science degree asks: 'Why does it work?'
A graduate with an engineering degree asks: 'How does it work?'
A graduate with an accounting degree asks: 'How much will it cost?'
A graduate with an arts degree asks: 'Do you want fries with that?'
A graduate with an engineering degree asks: 'How does it work?'
A graduate with an accounting degree asks: 'How much will it cost?'
A graduate with an arts degree asks: 'Do you want fries with that?'
— Anonymous
In Geoff Tibballs, The Mammoth Book of Humor (2000), 83.
A great invention for dieters would be a refrigerator which weighs you every time you open the door.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 546.
A major scientific advancement would be the development of cigarette ashes that would match the color of the rug.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 85.
A man’s liver is his carburettor.
— Anonymous
A metallurgist is an expert who can look at a platinum blonde and tell whether she is virgin metal or common ore.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 703.
A mineralogist is the only living creature who belongs in the mineral kingdom.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 703.
A minor operation: one performed on somebody else.
— Anonymous
Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations (2001), 191.
A New Arithmetic: “I am not much of a mathematician,” said the cigarette, “but I can add nervous troubles to a boy, I can subtract from his physical energy, I can multiply his aches and pains, I can divide his mental powers, I can take interest from his work and discount his chances for success.”
— Anonymous
In Henry Ford, The Case Against the Little White Slaver (1914), Vol. 3, 40.
A new cigarette offers coupons good for a cemetery lot.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 85.
A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury.
[For centuries mercury was used as a treatment for syphilis.]
[For centuries mercury was used as a treatment for syphilis.]
— Anonymous
Saying. In Michael J. O'Dowd and Elliot Philipp, The History of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (2000), 227.
A person is smart. People are dumb ... Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
— Anonymous
Character Agent K in movie Men in Black(1997), screen story and screenplay by Ed Solomon. Quoted in George Aichele, Culture, Entertainment and the Bible (2000), 26. In a footnote, from the post-movie novel by Steve Perry, Men in Black (1997), 66, is added, 'Yeah. A hundred years from now, whoever is here will probably pee themselves laughing at what we believe.'
A physician is someone who knows everything and does nothing.
A surgeon is someone who does everything and knows nothing.
A psychiatrist is someone who knows nothing and does nothing.
A pathologist is someone who knows everything and does everything too late.
A surgeon is someone who does everything and knows nothing.
A psychiatrist is someone who knows nothing and does nothing.
A pathologist is someone who knows everything and does everything too late.
— Anonymous
A physicist learns more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing; whereas a philosopher learns less and less about more and more, until he knows nothing about everything.
— Anonymous
Saying.
A rash of dermatologists, a hive of allergists, a scrub of interns, a giggle of nurses, a flood of urologists, a pile of proctologists, an eyeful of ophthalmologists, a whiff of anesthesiologists, a cast of orthopaedic rheumatologists, a gargle of laryngologists.
— Anonymous
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
— Anonymous
According to Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier this is not a quote by Joseph Stalin. Although a 1958 book review in the New York Times used similar words, no citation was provided, and likely because there is none. However, the quote is often seen incorrectly attributed to Stalin, and sometimes Lenin or Heinrich Himmler.
A statistician carefully assembles the facts and figures for others who carefully misinterpret them.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes (1995), 765.
A stitch in time would have confused Einstein.
— Anonymous
In Lily Splane, Quantum Consciousness (2004), 307
A surgeon should give as little pain as possible while he is treating the patient, and no pain at all when he charges his fee.
— Anonymous
‘FRCS’ in The Times, quoted by Reginald Pound in Harley Street (1967).
Abstinence is a good thing, but it should always be practised in moderation.
— Anonymous
Alas! That partial Science should approve
The sly rectangle's too licentious love!
From three bright Nymphs the wily wizard burns;-
Three bright-ey'd Nymphs requite his flame by turns.
Strange force of magic skill! Combined of yore.
The sly rectangle's too licentious love!
From three bright Nymphs the wily wizard burns;-
Three bright-ey'd Nymphs requite his flame by turns.
Strange force of magic skill! Combined of yore.
— Anonymous
'The Loves of the Triangles. A Mathematical and Philosophical Poem', in The Anti-Jacobean or Weekly Examiner, Monday 16 April 1798, 182. [Written by George Canning, Hookham Frere, and George Ellis].
All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. You'd be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.
— Anonymous
Official of the Quebec Health Insurance Board, on Use of Computers in Quebec Province's Comprehensive Medical-care system. F. 19, 4:5. In Barbara Bennett and Linda Amster, Who Said What (and When, and Where, and How) in 1971: December-June, 1971 (1972), Vol. 1, 38. (Later sources cite Isaac Asimov.)
An adult is one who has ceased to grow vertically but not horizontally.
— Anonymous
An astronomer is a guy who stands around looking at heavenly bodies.
— Anonymous
Quoted in M. Goran, A Treasury of Science Jokes (1986), 29.
An epidemiologist is a doctor broken down by age and sex.
— Anonymous
An observant parent’s evidence may be disproved but should never be ignored.
— Anonymous
Lancet (1951), 1, 688.
An optimist is someone who believes the future is uncertain.
— Anonymous
No primary source found, so Webmaster believes this is merely anonymous. However, in Arnold O. Allen, Probability, Statistics, and Queueing Theory (1990), it is attributed to Edward Teller; but also occasionally seen on the Web attributed to Leo Szilard. If you know a primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Any time you wish to demonstrate something, the number of faults is proportional to the number of viewers.
— Anonymous
Bye's First Law of Model Railroading. In Paul Dickson, The Official Rules, (1978), 23.
Archaeology is the science that proves you can't keep a good man down.
— Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings (1993), 25
Archaeology is the science that proves you can't keep a good man down.
— Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings (1993), 24.
Architecture is of all the arts the one nearest to a science, for every architectural design is at its inception dominated by scientific considerations. The inexorable laws of gravitation and of statics must be obeyed by even the most imaginative artist in building.
— Anonymous
In 'The Message of Greek Architecture', The Chautauquan (Apr 1906), 43, 110.
Arithmetically speaking, rabbits multiply faster than adders add.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 509.
Ars est sine arte, cujus principium est mentiri, medium laborare, et finis mendicare.
The art is devoid of art, whose beginning is falsehood, its middle labour, and its end beggary.
[On the character of the delusive science of alchemy].
The art is devoid of art, whose beginning is falsehood, its middle labour, and its end beggary.
[On the character of the delusive science of alchemy].
— Anonymous
In Henry Thomas Riley, Dictionary of Latin Quotations, Proverbs, Maxims, and Mottos (1866), 27.
As kids we started smoking because we thought it was smart. Why don't we stop smoking for the same reason?
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 85.
Asthma is a disease that has practically the same symptoms as passion except that with asthma it lasts longer.
— Anonymous
Journal of the American Medical Association (1964), 190, 392.
Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?
— Anonymous
Thomas F. Shubnell, Greatest Jokes of the Century Book 2 (2008), 91.
Behaviorism is the art of pulling habits out of rats.
— Anonymous
In Jon Fripp, Michael Fripp and Deborah Fripp, Speaking of Science (2000), 23.
Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry.
— Anonymous
Advertising campaign slogan for the DuPont Company from 1935.
Botany is the science in which plants are known by their aliases.
— Anonymous
Quoted in M. Goran, A Treasury of Science Jokes (1986), 49.
Both Religion and science require faith in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations.
— Anonymous
Sometimes seen attributed (doubtfully?) to Max Planck. Widely seen on the web, but always without citation. Webmaster has not yet found any evidence in print that this is a valid Planck quote, and must be skeptical that it is. Contact Webmaster if you know a primary source.
By the year 2000 the commonest killers such as coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory, diseases and many cancers will be wiped out.
— Anonymous
Irish Times (24 Apr 1987).
Cancer is a biological, not a statistical problem.
— Anonymous
'Shoot Out in Marlboro Country', Mother Jones Magazine (Jan 1979), 36.
Children are one third of our population and all our future.
— Anonymous
U.S. Select Panel for Promotion of Child Health (1981)
Choose your specialist and you choose your disease.
— Anonymous
The Westminster Review (18 May 1908)
Cigarettes are killers that travel in packs.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 85.
Complaint was made in 1901 that 'Not so much attention is paid to our children's minds as is paid to their feet.'
— Anonymous
Quoted by A.V. Neale in The Advancement of Child Health (1964), 171.
Copying extensively from one source is plagiarism; copying extensively from several is research.
— Anonymous
N. E. Renton, Compendium of Good Writing: A Plain English Guide (2007), 113.
Coughs and sneezes spread diseases.
— Anonymous
British wartime slogan (1942)
Daylight Saving Time: Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.
— Anonymous
Defendit numerus: There is safety in numbers.
— Anonymous
Latin proverb, first recorded in English about 1550. In James Roy Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 3, 1452.
Dermatology is the best specialty. The patient never dies and never gets well.
— Anonymous
J. Dantith and A. Isaacs, Medical Quotes: A Thematic Dictionary (1989)
Descended from the apes? My dear, we will hope it is not true. But if it is, let us pray that it may not become generally known.
— Anonymous
Remark by the wife of a canon of Worcester Cathedral. Quoted in Ashley Montagu, Manʹs Most Dangerous Myth: the Fallacy of Race (1945), 27.
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
— Anonymous
In Richard Alan Krieger, Civilization's Quotations: Life's Ideal (2002), 6. Although this source, and a number of others, attribute the quote to Ralph Waldo Emerson, none that the webmaster found have a citation, and a number of other sources treat it as anonymous. Thus, the webmaster references Emerson with doubt. If you know a definitive primary print source, please contact the webmaster.
Doctor says he would be a very sick man if were still alive today.
— Anonymous
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
— Anonymous
Thomas F. Shubnell, Greatest Jokes of the Century Book 2 (2008), 90.
Don’t take your organs to heaven with you. Heaven knows we need them here.
[Slogan advocating organ donations.]
[Slogan advocating organ donations.]
— Anonymous
Dr Bell fell down the well
And broke his collar bone
Doctors should attend the sick
And leave the well alone.
And broke his collar bone
Doctors should attend the sick
And leave the well alone.
— Anonymous
Education is a journey, not a destination.
— Anonymous
In Mary Belle Harris, I Knew Them in Prison (1936), 383. (This example, which shows the quote already in use by 1936, actually says 'Reformation, like education, is a journey...'.)
Entropy isn't what it used to be.
— Anonymous
Thomas F. Shubnell, Greatest Jokes of the Century Book 2 (2008), 90.
Even a good operation done poorly is still a poor operation.
— Anonymous
Every science thinks it is the science.
— Anonymous
In Leonard and Thelma Spinrad, Speaker's Lifetime Library (1979), 220.
Everybody loves a fat man.
— Anonymous
American saying
Everyone faces at all times two fateful possibilities: one is to grow older, the other not.
— Anonymous
Exercise is good for your health, but like everything else it can be overdone.
— Anonymous
Arabic Proverb. In Shape Magazine. In Dr. Paul C. Bragg, Dr. Patricia Bragg, Super Power Breathing (1999), 62.
Experience is a comb that Nature gives man after he has gone bald.
— Anonymous
Thai saying. In Dr. N Sreedharan, Quotations of Wit and Wisdom (2007), 24.
Experience is the mother of science.
— Anonymous
Collected in Henery George Bohn, A Handbook of Proverbs: Comprising Ray's Collection of English Proverbs (1855), 352.
Experiment adds to knowledge, Credulity leads to error.
— Anonymous
Arabic Proverb.
Exploratory operation: a remunerative reconnaissance.
— Anonymous
Fact is not enough, opinion is too much.
— Anonymous
Seen on the web attributed to Todor Simeonov, but Webmaster has not been able to verify. Contact Webmaster if you have a primary source.
Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes (1995), 765. Sometimes seen attributed, probably incorrectly, to Mark Twain. Webmaster has not yet found any primary source, and doubts that it is a Twain quote.
Fiction tends to become 'fact' simply by serial passage via the printed page.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Fifty years ago the successful doctor was said to need three things; a top hat to give him Authority, a paunch to give him Dignity, and piles to give him an Anxious Expression.
— Anonymous
Lancet (1951), 1, 169.
Filthy water cannot be washed.
— Anonymous
African proverb
For every complex question there is a simple answer–and it's wrong.
— Anonymous
Although often seen attributed to H.L. Mencken, webmaster has not found found a primary source, and no authoritative quote collection containing it. If you have a primary source, please contact webmaster, who meanwhile lists this quote as only being author unknown.
For most diagnoses all that is needed is an ounce of knowledge, an ounce of intelligence, and a pound of thoroughness.
— Anonymous
Arabic Proverb. In Lancet (1951). In John Murtagh, General Practice (1998), 125.
From common salt are obtained chemically as primary derivatives chlorine—both a war gas and a means of purifying water; and 'caustic soda.' … [O]n the chlorine side there is obtained chloride of lime, (a bleaching powder and a disinfectant), chloroform (an anesthetic), phosgene (a frightful ware gas), chloroacetophenone (another war gas), and an indigo and a yellow dye. [O]n the soda side we get metallic sodium, from which are derived sodium cyanide (a disinfectant), two medicines with [long] names, another war gas, and a beautiful violet dye. Thus, from a healthful, preservative condiment come things useful and hurtful—according to the intent or purpose.
— Anonymous
The Homiletic Review, Vol. 83-84 (1922), Vol. 83, 209.
Garbage in, garbage out.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Get up at five, have lunch at nine,
Supper at five, retire at nine,
And you will live to ninety-nine.
Supper at five, retire at nine,
And you will live to ninety-nine.
— Anonymous
Give 'em 2.5 cm, and they'll take 1.6 km.
— Anonymous
God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't.
— Anonymous
This is not a statement made by Alfred Korzybski, although he quoted it and attributed it as "an old maxim" in the Introduction to the second edition of his book, Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (1941, 4th ed. 1958), xxxvii. It is included here to provide a correction for readers who find it listed elsewhere as an original quote he made.
God's Registrar.
[Referring to Carolus Linnaeus, who is also known as Father of Taxonomy.]
[Referring to Carolus Linnaeus, who is also known as Father of Taxonomy.]
— Anonymous
In Heinz Goerke Linnaeus (1966) trans. by Denver Lindley (1973), 89, Title of Chapter 8.
Gravity tells us why an apple doesn't go to heaven.
— Anonymous
In Cecil Hunt, The Best Howlers (1957).
Great science is an art.
— Anonymous
In Leonard and Thelma Spinrad, Speaker's Lifetime Library (1979), 220.
Half of the secret of resistance to disease is cleanliness; the other half is dirtiness.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Harvard Law: Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, humidity, and other variables, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
— Anonymous
The Coevolution Quarterly, Nos. 8-12 (1975), 138.
Have faith in the Lord but use sulphur for the itch.
— Anonymous
He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything.
— Anonymous
Arabic proverb.
He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, he is a fool—shun him;
He who knows not, and knows he knows not, he is simple—teach him;
He who knows, and knows not he knows, he is asleep—wake him;
He who knows, and knows he knows, he is wise—follow him.
He who knows not, and knows he knows not, he is simple—teach him;
He who knows, and knows not he knows, he is asleep—wake him;
He who knows, and knows he knows, he is wise—follow him.
— Anonymous
Hesiod, 'Works and Days,' 293-7. In William White, Notes and Queries (1904), Series 10, Vol. 1, 235, the correspondent H.A. Strong says that the origin of these lines is to be found in Hesiod [Greek, 8th Century B.C.], Works and Days, 293-7; that the passage was very celebrated in antiquity, and is quoted by Aristotle, Nic. Eth., i. 4; and that both Livy (xxii. 29) and Cicero (Pro Cluent., 31) refer to it. Another correspondent (J.H.K.) said it was stated to be an Arab proverb in Lady [Isabel]Burton, Life of [Captain] Sir Richard [F.] Burton [(1894, Vol. 1, 548, footnote, wherein the quote begins 'Men are four.'].
Heisenberg may have slept here.
Quip that depends upon the reader appreciating the Uncertainty Principle.
Quip that depends upon the reader appreciating the Uncertainty Principle.
— Anonymous
Bumpersticker.
Heisenberg may have slept here.
Quip that depends upon the reader appreciating the Uncertainty Principle.
Quip that depends upon the reader appreciating the Uncertainty Principle.
— Anonymous
Bumpersticker.
Here are the opinions on which my facts are based.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Here lies one who for medicines would not give
A little gold, and so his life he lost;
I fancy now he'd wish again to live,
Could he but guess how much his funeral cost.
A little gold, and so his life he lost;
I fancy now he'd wish again to live,
Could he but guess how much his funeral cost.
— Anonymous
How can one really know a great moment unless one has first felt a great disappointment?
— Anonymous
Jewish saying. As quoted in Harry Gilbert and Diana Gilbert Smith, Gravity, the Glue of the Universe: History and Activities (1997), 43.
Humpty Dumpty sate on a wall,
Humpti dumpti had a great fall;
Threescore men and threescore more,
Cannot place Humpty dumpty as he was before.
Humpti dumpti had a great fall;
Threescore men and threescore more,
Cannot place Humpty dumpty as he was before.
— Anonymous
Nursery rhyme. In Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, the Nursery Parnassus; a Choice Collection of Pretty Songs and Verses For the Amusement of All Little Good Children (1810), 36.
Hypochondria is the only disease I haven't got.
— Anonymous
Graffito seen in New York (1978). In (2005), 24
I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.
— Anonymous
Attributed to John F. Kennedy in various sources, for example: Speech (1959), In Dale Carlson, Carol Nicklaus, Who Said What?: Philosophy Quotes for Teens (2003). However, webmaster has been unable to verify from a primary source, and is unsure of its authenticity. Please contact webmaster if you know a primary source.
I think modern science should graft functional wings on a pig, simply so no one can ever use that stupid saying again.
— Anonymous
In K. D. Sullivan, A Cure for the Common Word (2007), 134.
If a research project is not worth doing at all, it is not worth doing properly.
— Anonymous
Saying.
If a train station is where the train stops, what is a work station?
— Anonymous
In Andrew Davison, Humour the Computer (1995), 36.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.
— Anonymous
Old saying.
If I were summing up the qualities of a good teacher of medicine, I would enumerate human sympathy, moral and intellectual integrity, enthusiasm, and ability to talk, in addition, of course, to knowledge of his subject.
— Anonymous
If the experiment works, you must be using the wrong experiment. An experiment has a tendency to fail
— Anonymous
In Dr. N Sreedharan, Quotations of Wit and Wisdom (2007), 24.
If three simple questions and one well chosen laboratory test lead to an unambiguous diagnosis, why harry the patient with more?
— Anonymous
Editorial, 'Clinical decision by numbers'. Lancet (1975) 1, 1077.
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research.
— Anonymous
Although seen in various publications attributed but without citation to Albert Einstein, Webmaster is doubtful, and is placing it under Anonymous. But, if you know the primary print source, perhaps in different wording, please contact the Webmaster.
If you are too smart to pay the doctor, you had better be too smart to get ill.
— Anonymous
African proverb, Transvaal
If you intend to give a sick man medicine, let him get very ill first, so that he may see the benefit of your medicine.
— Anonymous
African proverb, Nupe
If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don't actually live longer; it just seems that way.
— Anonymous
If you've got time to kill, work it to death.
— Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Treasury of Humorous Quotations (2004), 253.
In a few minutes a computer can make a mistake so great that it would have taken many men many months to equal.
— Anonymous
In Civilization's Quotations: Life's Ideal (2002), 315.
In diagnosis, the young are positive and the middle-aged tentative; only the old have flair.
— Anonymous
Lancet (1951), 1, 795.
In mathematics, fractions speak louder than words.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 509.
In modern thought, (if not in fact)
Nothing is that doesn't act, So that is reckoned wisdom which
Describes the scratch but not the itch.
Nothing is that doesn't act, So that is reckoned wisdom which
Describes the scratch but not the itch.
— Anonymous
Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man? (2nd Ed.,1964), 25.
In place of infinity we usually put some really big number, like 15.
Perhaps referring to the programmer's hexadecimal counting scheme which has 16 digits (0-0 followed by digits A-F), useful in binary context as a power of 2.
Perhaps referring to the programmer's hexadecimal counting scheme which has 16 digits (0-0 followed by digits A-F), useful in binary context as a power of 2.
— Anonymous
Attributed to a Computer Science Professor on various web pages. Webmaster has found no print source for this wording and comments, but its originality makes it worthy of inclusion here. Webmaster comments: perhaps one of those infinite number of monkeys typed it! Please make contact if you know a primary print source.
In the midst of your illness you will promise a goat, but when you have recovered, a chicken will seem sufficient.
— Anonymous
African proverb, Jukun
In the nineteenth century men lost their fear of God and acquired a fear of microbes.
— Anonymous
Indigestion is the failure to adjust a square meal to a round stomach.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 546.
IODINE
It was Courtois discover'd Iodine
(In the commencement of this century),
Which, with its sisters, bromine and chlorine,
Enjoys a common parentage - the sea;
Although sometimes 'tis found, with other things,
In minerals and many saline springs.
But yet the quantity is so minute
In the great ocean, that a chemist might,
With sensibilities the most acute,
Have never brought this element to light,
Had he not thought it were as well to try
Where ocean's treasures concentrated lie.
And Courtois found that several plants marine,
Sponges, et cetera, exercise the art
Of drawing from the sea its iodine
In quantities sufficient to impart
Its properties; and he devised a plan
Of bringing it before us - clever man!
It was Courtois discover'd Iodine
(In the commencement of this century),
Which, with its sisters, bromine and chlorine,
Enjoys a common parentage - the sea;
Although sometimes 'tis found, with other things,
In minerals and many saline springs.
But yet the quantity is so minute
In the great ocean, that a chemist might,
With sensibilities the most acute,
Have never brought this element to light,
Had he not thought it were as well to try
Where ocean's treasures concentrated lie.
And Courtois found that several plants marine,
Sponges, et cetera, exercise the art
Of drawing from the sea its iodine
In quantities sufficient to impart
Its properties; and he devised a plan
Of bringing it before us - clever man!
— Anonymous
Discursive Chemical Notes in Rhyme (1876) by the Author of the Chemical Review, a B.
It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class.
— Anonymous
It is as if Cleopatra fell off her barge in 40 BC and hasn't hit the water yet.
[Illustrating how strange the behaviour of kaon particles, when first found in cosmic rays, which lived without predicted decay for a surprisingly long time—seemingly postponed a million billion times longer than early theory expected.]
[Illustrating how strange the behaviour of kaon particles, when first found in cosmic rays, which lived without predicted decay for a surprisingly long time—seemingly postponed a million billion times longer than early theory expected.]
— Anonymous
In Frank Close, Michael Marten, Christine Sutton, The Particle Odyssey: a Journey to the Heart of the Matter (2004),75.
It is better to employ a doubtful remedy than to condemn the patient to a certain death.
— Anonymous
It is not what disease the patient has but which patient has the disease.
— Anonymous
It takes five years to learn when to operate and twenty years to learn when not to.
— Anonymous
It takes most men about two years to completely quit smoking cigarettes and twice as long to quit bragging about it.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 84.
It was an admirable reply of a converted astronomer, who, when interrogated concerning his comparative estimate of religion and the science he had formerly idolized, answered, 'I am now bound for heaven, and I take the stars in my way.'
— Anonymous
In Tyron Edwards. A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 506.
It will never get well if you pick it.
— Anonymous
American saying
It's a numbers game—in a dense urban area there are so many of us that even unintentional pollution would cause all the crap we see in the water.
— Anonymous
Posted by 'Lisa' (6 Mar 2008), Reply in blog 'Emerald City' to item 'The Plague that is the plastic bag, in photos', Los Angeles Times website (1 Mar 2008).
Late children, early orphans.
— Anonymous
Laws of Thermodynamics
1) You cannot win, you can only break even.
2) You can only break even at absolute zero.
3) You cannot reach absolute zero.
1) You cannot win, you can only break even.
2) You can only break even at absolute zero.
3) You cannot reach absolute zero.
— Anonymous
Folklore amongst physicists.
Let out the blood, let out the disease.
— Anonymous
Centuries-old aphorism popular up to the end of the 19th century
Let the sun never set or rise on a small bowel obstruction.
Adage expressing urgency for early operation to avoid possible fatality.
Adage expressing urgency for early operation to avoid possible fatality.
— Anonymous
Summary of classic advice by Georg Friedrich Louis Stromeyer (1804-76) for a stangulated hernia. In Joe J. Tjandra et al., Textbook of Surgery (2006), 159.
Life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.
— Anonymous
In Lily Splane, Quantum Consciousness (2004), 307
Like the crest of a peacock, like the gem on the head of a snake, so is mathematics at the head of all knowledge.
— Anonymous
From the oldest extant Indian astronomical text, Vedanga Jyotisa (c. 500 B.C.). Quoted, as cited by George Gheverghese Joseph, in Dick Teresi, Lost Discoveries (2003), 28. G. G. Joseph has written a book by the title Crest of the Peacock (1991).
Like the statistician who was drowned in a lake of average depth six inches.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Loss of teeth and marriage spoil a woman's beauty.
— Anonymous
African proverb
Love and pregnancy and riding on a camel cannot be hid.
— Anonymous
Arabic proverb.
Lubin's Law: If another scientist thought your research was more important than his, he would drop what he is doing and do what you are doing.
— Anonymous
In Dr. N Sreedharan, Quotations of Wit and Wisdom (2007), 68.
Making out an income tax is a lesson in mathematics: addition, division, multiplication and extraction.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 419.
Man has an inalienable right to die of something.
— Anonymous
'Quack cures for cancer', Cardiff Mail (20 Oct 1923).
Man occasionally stumbles on the truth, but then just picks himself up and hurries on regardless.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Many Americans are trying to conserve energy as never before—they're now burning their morning toast on only one side.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 156.
Many physicians would prefer passing a small kidney stone to presenting a paper.
— Anonymous
Journal of the American Medical Association (1960) 174, 292.
Marriage—a stage between infancy and adultery.
— Anonymous
Mathematics is strange: many make thousands but not many make millions.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 250.
Medical statistics are like a bikini bathing suit: what they reveal is interesting; what they conceal is vital.
— Anonymous
'Shoot Out in Marlboro Country', Mother Jones Magazine (Jan 1979), 36.
Medicine has been defined to be the art or science of amusing a sick man with frivolous speculations about his disorder, and of tampering ingeniously, till nature either kills or cures him.
— Anonymous
In Tryon Edwards (ed.), A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 339.
Medicine is a science, acquiring a practice an art.
— Anonymous
In Wystan Hugh Auden, The Viking Book of Aphorisms: A Personal Selection (), 217.
Medicine is not meant to live on.
— Anonymous
Collected in Henery George Bohn, A Handbook of Proverbs: Comprising Ray's Collection of English Proverbs (1855), 25.
Medicine, like every useful science, should be thrown open to the observation and study of all. It should, in fact, like law and every important science, be made part of the primary education of the people. … We should at once explode the whole machinery of mystification and concealment—wigs, gold canes, and the gibberish of prescriptions—which serves but as a cloak to ignorance and legalized murder.
— Anonymous
Populist philosophy, of Samuel Thomson (1769-1843), founder of the Thomsonian System of medicine, as stated in New York Evening Star (27 Dec 1833)., as cited in the Thomsonian Recorder (17 Jan 1835), 3, 127. Quoted in Paul Starr The Social Transformation of American Medicine (1984), 56.
Microbiology Lab - Staph Only
— Anonymous
Thomas F. Shubnell, Greatest Jokes of the Century Book 2 (2008), 90.
Mind over matter.
— Anonymous
Most kids can't understand why a country that makes atomic bombs would ban fireworks.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 24.
My friend was sick: I attended him.
He died; I dissected him.
He died; I dissected him.
— Anonymous
My God all that reality!
— Anonymous
Actor's remark a doctor's profession.
Nature is by nature perverse.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Necessity is the mother of invention
— Anonymous
Collected in Henery George Bohn, A Handbook of Proverbs: Comprising Ray's Collection of English Proverbs (1855), 457.
No man is a good physician who has never been sick.
— Anonymous
Arabic proverb.
No physician is really good before he has killed one or two patients.
— Anonymous
Hindu Proverb. In Colin Jarman, The Book of Poisonous Quotes (1993), 234.
No question is so difficult as that to which the answer is obvious.
— Anonymous
Saying.
No sense being pessimistic, it probably wouldn't work anyway.
— Anonymous
Thomas F. Shubnell, Greatest Jokes of the Century Book 2 (2008), 90.
No woman wants an abortion. Either she wants a child or she wishes to avoid pregnancy.
— Anonymous
Letter to the Lancet
Nobody loves a fat man.
— Anonymous
American saying
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
— Anonymous
This often seen attributed—incorrectly&mash;to Sir Arthur S. Eddington, for example, in Norman K. Glendenning, Our Place in the Universe (2007), 1. It is similar to a quote by J.B.S. Haldane, "The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." In Possible Worlds and Other Papers (1927), 286.
Nowadays there is a pill for everything—to keep your nose from running, to keep you regular, to keep your heart beating, to keep your hair from falling out, to improve your muscle tone ... Why thanks to advances in medical science, every day people are dying who never looked better.
— Anonymous
In Ashton Applewhite, William R. Evans and Andrew Frothingham, And I Quote (2003), 174-175.
One of the first things a boy learns with a chemistry set is that he'll never get another one.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 128.
One of the largest promises of science is, that the sum of human happiness will be increased, ignorance destroyed, and, with ignorance, prejudice and superstition, and that great truth taught to all, that this world and all it contains were meant for our use and service; and that where nature by her own laws has defined the limits of original unfitness, science may by extract so modify those limits as to render wholesome that which by natural wildness was hurtful, and nutritious that which by natural poverty was unnourishing. We do not yet know half that chemistry may do by way of increasing our food.
— Anonymous
'Common Cookery'. Household Words (26 Jan 1856), 13, 45. An English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens.
Our clocks do not measure time. ... Time is defined to be what our clocks measure.
— Anonymous
Unnamed person at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, U.S.A., quoted by Tim Folger in 'Newsflash: Time May Not Exist', Discover Magazine (Jun 2007).
Palliative care should be an integral part of cancer care and not be associated exclusively with terminal care. Many patients need it early in the course of their disease.
— Anonymous
Improving the Quality of Cancer Care. A Report of the Expert Advisory Group on Cancer to the Chief Medical Officers of England and Wales (1995). Quoted in Jessica Corner and Christopher Bailey, Cancer Nursing (2001),543.
Parenthood is the only profession that has been left exclusively to amateurs.
— Anonymous
Patients and their families will forgive you for wrong diagnoses, but will rarely forgive you for wrong prognoses; the older you grow in medicine, the more chary you get about offering iron clad prognoses, good or bad.
— Anonymous
David Seegal, Journal of Chronic Diseases (1963), 16, 443.
People do more talking than listening: under the law of gravity, it takes more energy to shut one's mouth than to open it.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 267.
Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules. Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.
— Anonymous
In Wieslaw Krawcewicz, Bindhyachal Rai, Calculus with Maple Labs (2003), 328. In this book, and also in Julian Havil, Nonplussed!: Mathematical Proof of Implausible Ideas? (2007), 68, the quote is attributed to Ian Ellis, but most sources vite it as Anonymous.
Physicians and politicians resemble one another in this respect, that some defend the constitution and others destroy it.
— Anonymous
Acton or the Circle of Life : A Collection of Thoughts and Observations (1849), 190.
Physicians are rather like undescended testicles, they are difficult to locate and when they are found, they are pretty ineffective.
— Anonymous
Susi Greenwood, Book of Humorous Medical Anecdotes (1989), 47.
Poison should be tried out on a frog.
— Anonymous
African proverb, Bantu
Poverty is a virtue greatly exaggerated by physicians no longer forced to practise it.
— Anonymous
Removing the teeth will cure something, including the foolish belief that removing the teeth will cure everything.
— Anonymous
Remsen never wore his hat inside the door for he had much the same respect for his laboratory that most of us have for a church.
— Anonymous
Quoting an unnamed former student of Remsen, speaking of his original laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Dalton Hall on Little Ross Street, Baltimore, Maryland. In F.H. Getman The Life of Ira Remsen (1940), 68.
Research is the art of seeing what everyone else has seen, and doing what no-one else has done.
— Anonymous
In Barbara A. Nadel (ed.), Building Security (2004), 18.1. Compare quote by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi: 'Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.'
REST IN PEACE. THE MISTAKE SHALL NOT BE REPEATED.
— Anonymous
Inscription on the cenotaph at Hiroshima, Japan. Quoted in Alan L. Mackay, The Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977. In Robert Andrews Famous Lines: a Columbia Dictionary of Familiar Quotations (1997), 340.
Rheumatic fever licks at the joints, but bites at the heart.
— Anonymous
Rules of Thumb
Thumb's First Postulate: It is better to use a crude approximation and know the truth, plus or minus 10 percent, than demand an exact solution and know nothing at all.
Thumb's Second Postulate: An easily understood, workable falsehood is more useful than a complex incomprehensible truth.
Thumb's First Postulate: It is better to use a crude approximation and know the truth, plus or minus 10 percent, than demand an exact solution and know nothing at all.
Thumb's Second Postulate: An easily understood, workable falsehood is more useful than a complex incomprehensible truth.
— Anonymous
In Arthur Bloch, The Complete Murphy's Law: A Definitive Collection (1991), 126.
books.google.com
- 1991
Science has increased our lifespan considerably. Now we can look forward to paying our taxes at least ten years longer.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 496.
Science is a wonderful thing, but it has not yet succeeded in maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain, and that's all we asked of it.
— Anonymous
In Dr. N Sreedharan, Quotations of Wit and Wisdom (2007), 68.
Science is forever rewriting itself.
— Anonymous
In Leonard and Thelma Spinrad, Speaker's Lifetime Library (1979), 220.
Science is the ascertainment of facts and the refusal to regard facts as permanent.
— Anonymous
In Leonard and Thelma Spinrad, Speaker's Lifetime Library (1979), 220.
Science is wiser than religion: it never tries to do the humanly impossible, like making you love your neighbor like yourself.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 704.
Science is wonderful: for years uranium cost only a few dollars a ton until scientists discovered you could kill people with it.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 703.
Science quickens and cultivates directly the faculty of observation, which in very many persons lies almost dormant through life, the power of accurate and rapid generalizations, and the mental habit of method and arrangement; it accustoms young persons to trace the sequence of cause and effect; it familiarizes then with a kind of reasoning which interests them, and which they can promptly comprehend; and it is perhaps the best corrective for that indolence which is the vice of half-awakened minds, and which shrinks from any exertion that is not, like an effort of memory, merely mechanical.
— Anonymous
Report of the Royal Commission on Education (1861), Parliamentary Papers (1864), Vol 20, 32-33, as cited in Paul White, Thomas Huxley: Making the "Man of Science" (2003), 77, footnote. Also quoted in John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life (1887, 2007), 63.
Science without conscience is the death of the soul.
— Anonymous
Sepsis is an insult to a surgeon.
— Anonymous
Sex appeal is a matter of chemistry, but you don't have to be a chemist to fins the formula.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 128.
Sex is the best form of fusion at room temperature.
— Anonymous
Saying.
Show me an archaeologist, and I'll show you a man who practices skull drudgery.
— Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings (1993), 25
Show me an archaeologist, and I'll show you a man who practices skull drugery.
— Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings (1993), 24.
Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.
— Anonymous
'Shoot Out in Marlboro Country', Mother Jones Magazine (Jan 1979), 36.
Some people get an education without going to college; the rest get it after they get out.
— Anonymous
Seen on the web, without citation, incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain. Webmaster has not yet found a book with this quotation, and greatly doubts that it is a Twain quote.
Somewhere between 1900 and 1912 in this country, according to one sober medical scientist [Henderson] a random patient, with a random disease, consulting a doctor chosen at random had, for the first time in the history of mankind, a better than fifty-fifty chance of profiting from the encounter.
— Anonymous
Quoted in New England Journal of Medicine (1964), 270, 449.
South Africa might be called the Daughter of Medicine. For was not the fight against scurvy the very reason for the establishment of the settlement at the Cape with its garden and hospital?
— Anonymous
In article 'The History of Medicine in South Africa', South African Medical Journal (14 Sep 1957), 31, No. 37, 938. The expression 'daughter of medicine' has been used before in various contexts.
Statistics can be made to prove anything—even the truth.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes (1995), 765.
Success is a journey, not a destination.
— Anonymous
Magazine of Michigan (1929), 10. Compare this quote with 'Education is a journey...')
Surgeon: A man who's always out for his cut.
— Anonymous
Tell a man that there are 300 billion stars in the universe, and he'll believe you ... Tell him that a bench has wet paint upon it and he'll have to touch it to be sure.
— Anonymous
Occasionally seen attributed to Albert Einstein, but without citation, so it is most likely anonymous.
The American Businessman has a problem: if he comes up with something new, the Russians invent it six months later and the Japanese make it cheaper.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 58.
The banker asks, 'how much?' The scientist asks, 'how come?'
— Anonymous
In Leonard and Thelma Spinrad, Speaker's Lifetime Library (1979), 220.
The best patient is a millionaire with a positive Wassermann [antibody test for syphilis]. In Carl Malmberg , 140 Million Patients (1947), 30. Medical proverb before the discovery of antibiotics.
— Anonymous
The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Merryman.
— Anonymous
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
— Anonymous
The brain is the most complicated kilo of matter in the universe.
— Anonymous
Perspectives (1966). In Memory (1999), 15.
The British Medical Association is a club of London physicians and surgeons who once a year visit and patronize their professional friends in the country.
— Anonymous
Medical Times and Gazette (18 Jan 1870), 37.
The California climate makes the sick well and the well sick, the old young and the young old.
— Anonymous
American saying
The cancer scare has increased the use of borrowed cigarettes.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 85.
The central dogma, enunciated by Crick in 1958 and the keystone of molecular biology ever since, is likely to prove a considerable over-simplification. That is the heretical but inescapable conclusion stemming from experiments done in the past few months in two laboratories in the United States.
— Anonymous
'News and Views', Nature, 1970, 226, 1198.
The collective IQ of the group is the lowest IQ of any member of the group, divided by the numbers of members in the group.
— Anonymous
In Lily Splane, Quantum Consciousness (2004), 309
The comforting, if spurious, precision of laboratory results has the same appeal as the lifebelt to the weak swimmer.
— Anonymous
Lancet (1981) 1, 539-40 (1981)
The computer is a great invention. There are as many mistakes as ever, but now they're nobody's fault.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 338.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
— Anonymous
In Lily Splane, Quantum Consciousness (2004), 310
The doctrine of Darwinism had been tritely summed up in the saying, “from mud to monkey, from monkey up to man.”
— Anonymous
Quoted by J.J. Morse in a lecture at Cardiff, reported by A.J. Smith in 'Spiritualism in the Principality: Mr Morse at Cardiff', The Medium and Daybreak (17 May 1878), 307.
The eminent scientist who once said we all behave like human beings obviously never drove a car.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 350.
The fact is that in creating towns, men create the materials for an immense hotbed of disease, and this effect can only be neutralised by extraordinary artificial precautions.
— Anonymous
The Times (8 Oct 1868)
The goal of science is to build better mousetraps. The goal of nature is to build better mice.
— Anonymous
In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 339.
The inhabitants of Harley Street and Wimpole Street had so taken up with their private practices that they had neglected to add to knowledge. The pursuit of learning had been handicapped by the pursuit of gain.
— Anonymous
Royal Commission on University Education (1915). Quoted in Reginald Pound, Harley Street (1967), 186.
The man of perfect knowledge should not unsettle the foolish whose knowledge is imperfect.
— Anonymous
In Bhagavad-gîtâ, third discourse, v.29, translation by Annie Wood Besant (1904), 49.
The mark of a true doctor is usually illegible.
— Anonymous
In Eugene E. Brussell, Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotable Definitions (2006), 151
The most difficult problem in mathematics is to make the date of a woman's birth agree with her present age.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 22.
The most powerful antigen in human biology is a new idea.
— Anonymous
Saying.
The National Health Service is rotting before our eyes, with a lack of political will to make the tough choices for a first-class service for an ever more demanding population.
— Anonymous
The Times (Jul 2000), Leader.
The new definition of psychiatry is the care of the id by the odd.
— Anonymous
The only place where a dollar is still worth one hundred cents today is in the problems in an arithmetic book.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 509.
The Patent Office is the mother-in-law of invention.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 583.
The person most often late for a doctor's appointment is the doctor himself.
— Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings (1993), 99
The principal objection to old age is that there is no future in it.
— Anonymous
The psychiatrist is the obstetrician of the mind.
— Anonymous
The publication of a long list of authors' names after the title is a little like having all a vessel's ballast hanging from the masthead, as if to counterbalance the barnacles.
— Anonymous
New England Journal of Medicine (1964), 271, 1068.
The reason that academic disputes are so bitter is that the stakes are so small.
— Anonymous
The reason the cow jumped over the moon was because there was a short circuit in the milking machine.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 24.
The sick are still in General Mixed Workhouses—the maternity cases, the cancerous, the venereal, the chronically infirm, and even the infectious, all together in one building, often in the same ward where they cannot be treated.
— Anonymous
UK National Committee to Promote the Break-up of the Poor Laws, The Failure of the Poor Law (1909). Quoted in Bulletin of the History of Medicine (1961), 35, 110.
The space scientist is a most remarkable man: he has his feet on the ground and his head in the clouds.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 703.
The spine is a series of bones running down your back. You sit on one end of it and your head sits on the other.
— Anonymous
The study of the mathematics is like climbing up a steep and craggy mountain; when once you reach the top, it fully recompenses your trouble, by opening a fine, clear, and extensive prospect.
— Anonymous
In Tryon Edwards (ed.), A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 337.
The subject, cosmic physics, of her inaugural lecture was reported as 'cosmetic physics' in the press (more plausible with a female Dozent!).
— Anonymous
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1970), 16, 408.
The United States would be better off if we had less conversation and more conservation.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 21.
The ways of science are unpredicatable: it can get men up to the moon, but it cannot get pigeons down from public buildings.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 703.
The wound is granulating well, the matter formed is diminishing in quantity and is laudable. But the wound is still deep and must be dressed from the bottom to ensure sound healing.
On healing of King Edward VII after appendectomy.
On healing of King Edward VII after appendectomy.
— Anonymous
British Medical Journal (1901).
There are no shade trees on the road to success.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 482.
There are three schools of magic. One: State a tautology, then ring the changes on its corollaries; that's philosophy. Two: Record many facts. Try to find a pattern. Then make a wrong guess at the next fact; that's science. Three: Be aware that you live in a malevolent Universe controlled by Murphy's Law, sometimes offset by Brewster's Factor; that's engineering.
— Anonymous
Circulated as an e-mail 'fortune cookie', an interesting remark included with the signature.
There are two kinds of sleep. The sleep of the just and the sleep of the just after.
— Anonymous
There is a story that once, not long after he came to Berlin, Planck forgot which room had been assigned to him for a lecture and stopped at the entrance office of the university to find out. Please tell me, he asked the elderly man in charge, 'In which room does Professor Planck lecture today?' The old man patted him on the shoulder 'Don't go there, young fellow,' he said 'You are much too young to understand the lectures of our learned Professor Planck'.
— Anonymous
In Barbara Lovett Cline, Men Who Made a New Physics: Physicists and the Quantum Theory (1987), 46.
There is no bed shortage—most people have their own.
— Anonymous
Capital Doctor (Dec 2000), No. 5.)
There is no short cut from chemical laboratory to clinic, except one that passes too close to the morgue.
— Anonymous
American Medical Association (1929) as quoted in Arabella Melville and Colin Johnson , Cured to Death: The Effects of Prescription Drugs (1982).
There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has come.
— Anonymous
The Nation, 15 April 1943.
They shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Recited by attending priest or bishop during ceremony for healing by Queen Anne's royal touch.
Recited by attending priest or bishop during ceremony for healing by Queen Anne's royal touch.
— Anonymous
Book of Common prayer (1708).
This guy's not an ordinary, garden-variety drunk. Far from it. Last year he donated his body to science, and he's preserving it in alcohol until they can use it.
— Anonymous
In Ashton Applewhite, William R. Evans and Andrew Frothingham, And I Quote (2003), 182.
This paper contains much that is new and much that is true. Unfortunately, that which is true is not new and that which is new is not true.
— Anonymous
Attribued as a referee's report in H. Eves, Return to Mathematical Circles (1988). Also attributed to a 19-th century scientist commenting on one of his competitor's papers, cited in I. M. Klotz, 'How to become famous by being wrong in science', International Journal of Quantitative Chemistry, 24, 881-890, which is quoted in Frederick Grinnell, Everyday Practice of Science (2008), 86.
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
— Anonymous
Sometimes seen on the web attributed to Isaac Asimov, but without citation. Webmaster has not yet found a reliable source. Meanwhile, consider it uncertain. Please contact Webmaster if you know a primary print source.
Thou to whom the sick and dying
Ever came, nor came in vain,
With thy healing hands replying
To their wearied cry of pain.
Ever came, nor came in vain,
With thy healing hands replying
To their wearied cry of pain.
— Anonymous
The New English Hymnal (1986), 331.
Three apples changed the world, Adam's apple, Newton's apple, and Steve's apple.
[Tweeted tribute for Steve Jobs, co-founder the Apple computer company.]
[Tweeted tribute for Steve Jobs, co-founder the Apple computer company.]
— Anonymous
In Fouad Ajami, 'The Arab World's Unknown Son', Wall Street Journal (12 Oct 2011).
Tis better than riches
To scratch when it itches
To scratch when it itches
— Anonymous
To err is human; to try to prevent recurrence of error is science.
— Anonymous
Saying. In Ashton Applewhite, William R. Evans and Andrew Frothingham, And I Quote (2003), 32.
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
— Anonymous
Often seen on the web and in publications attributed to Thomas Edison, but without any citation. So, Webmaster is doubtful, having not yet been able to find a primary print source—especially doubtful because such an appealing quote would be expected to be well documented. If you know one, please contact Webmaster. Meanwhile, Anonymous seems more appropriate. For an undocumented example of the quote, see Alex Barnett, The Quotable American (2002), 145.
To try to make a model of an atom by studying its spectrum is like trying to make a model of a grand piano by listening to the noise it makes when thrown downstairs.
— Anonymous
In Oliver Lodge in Atoms and Rays (1924), 74.
To use: Apply shampoo to wet hair. Massage to lather, then rinse. Repeat.
A typical hair-washing algorithm that fails to halt—in the way that computer programmers must avoid an infinite loop.
A typical hair-washing algorithm that fails to halt—in the way that computer programmers must avoid an infinite loop.
— Anonymous
In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation (2000), 23.
To-day, science has withdrawn into realms that are hardly understanded of the people. Biology means very largely histology, the study of the cell by difficult and elaborate microscopical processes. Chemistry has passed from the mixing of simple substances with ascertained reactions, to an experimentation of these processes under varying conditions of temperature, pressure, and electrification—all requiring complicated apparatus and the most delicate measurement and manipulation. Similarly, physics has outgrown the old formulas of gravity, magnetism, and pressure; has discarded the molecule and atom for the ion, and may in its recent generalizations be followed only by an expert in the higher, not to say the transcendental mathematics.
— Anonymous
‘Exit the Amateur Scientist.’ Editorial, The Nation, 23 August 1906, 83, 160.
Today's facts are tomorrow's fallacies.
— Anonymous
Very different would be the position of the profession toward homeopathy if it had aimed, like other doctrines advanced by physicians, to gain a foothold among medical men alone or chiefly, instead of making its appeal to the popular favour and against the profession. … And as its adherents do not aim simply at the establishment of a system of doctrines, but wage a war of radicalism against the profession, and seek to throw down the barricades and guard it from the intrusion of ignorance and quackery … our duty is to expel them.
— Anonymous
Proceedings of the Connecticut Medical Society (1847), 24. Quoted by Harris L. Coulter in Divided Legacy: the Conflict Between Homeopathy and the American Medical Association (1982), 204.
Visitor’s footfalls are like medicine; they heal the sick.
— Anonymous
African proverb, Bantu
Want to make your computer go really fast? Throw it out a window.
— Anonymous
In L. R. Parenti, Durata Del Dramma: Life Of Drama (2005), 32.
We forever have to walk the tightrope between what is seen to be the need and what is thought to be the demand . . . that's all part of setting priorities and having a rational debate.
— Anonymous
National Health Service Chief Executive Officer quoted in Timothy Milewa and Michael Calnan, 'Primary Care and Public Involvement, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2000), 93, 3-5.
We may conclude that from what science teaches us, there is in nature an order independent of man's existence, a meaningful order to which nature and man are subordinate.
— Anonymous
Sometimes seen attributed (doubtfully?) to Max Planck. Widely seen on the web, but always without citation. Webmaster has not yet found any evidence in print that this is a valid Planck quote, and must be skeptical that it is. Contact Webmaster if you know a primary source.
What is research, but a blind date with knowledge.
— Anonymous
Quoted in Robert S. Ely, Creating the Creative (2006), 60, attributed to William Henry, but without citation. It is seen in different sources variously attributed to William Henry, William J. Henry, Will Henry or Will Harvey. Webmaster has not found a primary print source documenting its authenticity. If you can supply one, please contact the webmaster. Meanwhile, it is listed here as anonymous.
When all else fails as a cure for smoking cigarettes, try carrying wet matches.
— Anonymous
In E.C. McKenzie, 14,000 Quips and Quotes for Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers (1990), 84.
When angry, take a lesson from modern science:
Always count down before blasting off.
Always count down before blasting off.
— Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Treasury of Humorous Quotations (2004), 13.
When fate arrives the physician becomes a fool.
— Anonymous
Arabic Proverb. In James Long, Eastern Proverbs and Emblems (2001), 84.
When science finally locates the center of the universe, some people will be surprised to learn they're not it.
— Anonymous
Source uncertain. Often identified as Anonymous. Sometimes attributed to Bernard Bailey, for example, in a chapter heading quote (without citation) in juvenile fiction by P.G. Kain, The Social Experiments of Dorie Dilts: Dumped by Popular Demand (2007), 126. Sometimes found on the web attributed to Bernard Bailey, but just as often it is Anonymous. If you can identify Bernard Bailey or know an original print source, please contact Webmaster.
Why speculate when you can calculate?
— Anonymous
Aphorism mentioned in Australian Federal Court, 1991 Federal Court Reports (1992), Vol. 31, 378.
Wisdom is a river that runs deep and slow. Inspiration and intuition are
lightning flashes reflected on its surface.
— Anonymous
In Barbara A. Robinson, Mind Bungee Jumping: Words of Life, Love, Inspiration, Encouragement and Motivation (2008), 287.
by - Poetry - 2008
Yesterday's dreams are today's science
— Anonymous
In Leonard and Thelma Spinrad, Speaker's Lifetime Library (1979), 220.
You can always tell the pioneers because they are face down in the mud with arrows in their backs.
— Anonymous
Seen in various paraphrases, such as $ldquo;in the dirt”.
You can't go by mathematics: the dollar you borrow is never as big as the dollar you pay back.
— Anonymous
In Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips and Quotes, 240.
You don’t know who he was? Half the particles in the universe obey him!
[Reply by a physics professor when a student asked who Bose was.]
[Reply by a physics professor when a student asked who Bose was.]
— Anonymous
Quoted in 'Original Vision, Forgotten Hero', The Calcutta Telegraph (3 Jan 2012)
You shall not eat or drink in the company of other people but with lepers alone, and you shall know that when you shall have died you will not be buried in the church.
— Anonymous
Advice to lepers in the Middle Ages in Treves. Quoted in O. Schell, Zur Geschichte des Aussatzes am Niederrhein, Ardir für Geschichte der Medezin (1910), 3, 335-46.
You Surgeons of London, who puzzle your Pates,
To ride in your Coaches, and purchase Estates,
Give over, for Shame, for your Pride has a Fall,
And ye Doctress of Epsom has outdone you all.
Dame Nature has given her a doctor's degree,
She gets all the patients and pockets the fee;
So if you don't instantly prove it a cheat,
She'll loll in a chariot whilst you walk the street.
Cautioning doctors about the quack bone-setter, Mrs. Mapp (d. 22 Dec 1737), who practiced in Epsom town once a week, arriving in a coach-and-four.
To ride in your Coaches, and purchase Estates,
Give over, for Shame, for your Pride has a Fall,
And ye Doctress of Epsom has outdone you all.
Dame Nature has given her a doctor's degree,
She gets all the patients and pockets the fee;
So if you don't instantly prove it a cheat,
She'll loll in a chariot whilst you walk the street.
Cautioning doctors about the quack bone-setter, Mrs. Mapp (d. 22 Dec 1737), who practiced in Epsom town once a week, arriving in a coach-and-four.
— Anonymous
Verses from a song in a comedy at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, called The Husband's Relief, or The Female Bone-setter and the Worm-doctor. In Robert Chambers, The Book of Days (1832), 729.
You'll be thought cool
If you call it the joule.
But there'll be a howl
If you call it the jowl.
If you call it the joule.
But there'll be a howl
If you call it the jowl.
— Anonymous
Supplied to Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by W. H. Brock.
Zenophobia: the irrational fear of converging sequences.
Pun on the name of the Greek philosopher, Zeno, famous for his challenging paradoxes concerning converging sequences.
Pun on the name of the Greek philosopher, Zeno, famous for his challenging paradoxes concerning converging sequences.
— Anonymous
In Wieslaw Krawcewicz, Bindhyachal Rai, Calculus with Maple Labs (2003), 407.
[An] old Pythagorean prejudice … thought it a crime to eat eggs; because an egg was a microcosm, or universe in little; the shell being the earth; the white, water; fire, the yolk; and the air found between the shell and the white.
— Anonymous
'Common Cookery'. Household Words (26 Jan 1856), 13, 43. An English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens.
[In an established surgical practice] there is a ghost in every bed [and fortunately] surgeons get long lives and short memories.
— Anonymous
In B.J. Moran, 'Decision-making and technical factors account for the learning curve in complex surgery', Journal of Public Health (2006), 28375-378.
[Like people] if you torture statistics long enough, they'll tell you anything you want to hear.
— Anonymous
In Erica Beecher-Monas, Evaluating Scientific Evidence (2007), 63.
… and the thousands of fishes moved as a huge beast piercing the water. They appear united, inexorably bound by common fate. How comes this unity?
— Anonymous
Seventeenth century. In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 261.
Quotes by others about Anonymous (1)
When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality, they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man’s name live for thousands of years. But above this level, far above, separated by an abyss, is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous.
'Human Personality', Simone Weil: An Anthology editted by Siân Miles,(2000), 55.
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. -- Carl Sagan
