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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index M > Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides Quotes

Thumbnail of Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides (source)
Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
(30 Mar 1135 - 13 Dec 1204)

Jewish philosopher and physician who was the leading member of the school of thought known as Jewish Aristotelanism.

Science Quotes by Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides (22 quotes)

[In treating the sick], the first thing to consider is the provision of fresh air, clean water, and a healthy diet.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Clean (52)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Diet (56)  |  First (1302)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Providing (5)  |  Sick (83)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Water (503)

Any urine that turns black is so extremely malignant that I do not know anyone who has micturated black urine and survived.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Black (46)  |  Do (1905)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Survival (105)  |  Turn (454)  |  Urine (18)

Astrology is a disease, not a science... It is a tree under the shadow of which all sorts of superstitions thrive. ... Only fools and charlatans lend value to it.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
Letter to Marseilles, 1195. Responsa, ii. 25b. In Philip Birnbaum (ed.), Mishneh Torah: Maimonides' Code of Law and Ethics (1974), 35.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrology (46)  |  Charlatan (8)  |  Disease (340)  |  Fool (121)  |  Lend (4)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Tree (269)  |  Value (393)

From the medical theoretical standpoint, it suffices to deliberate and speculate regarding most illnesses. However, therapeutically, speculation is not adequate, and true and correct knowledge is imperative.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Deliberation (5)  |  Illness (35)  |  Imperative (16)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)

Inequality of the pulse is in most cases accompanied by irregularity; one hardly ever finds a regular unequal pulse.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Find (1014)  |  Inequality (9)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Regular (48)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Unequal (12)

It is impossible for the strength of an elderly person to be great. Some physicians think that children also do not have great strength, but they are mistaken in their opinion.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Do (1905)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Person (366)  |  Physician (284)  |  Strength (139)  |  Think (1122)

It is impossible to put together a single prescription that will cure all ailing bodies.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Ailment (6)  |  Aphorism (22)  |  Cure (124)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Single (365)  |  Together (392)  |  Will (2350)

It is in all cases unavoidable that the heart is afflicted when death occurs.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Affliction (6)  |  Death (406)  |  Heart (243)  |  Occur (151)  |  Unavoidable (4)

Laughter that occurs during tickling of the axillary region and the soles of the feet, as well as the laughter that occurs when seeing comical things or when hearing comical things, has no practical diagnostic significance.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Occur (151)  |  Practical (225)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Significance (114)  |  Sole (50)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tickling (2)

Man knows only these poor mathematical theories about the heavens, and only God knows the real motions of the heavens and their causes.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
In Modern Science and Its Philosophy by Philip Frank (1950).
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  God (776)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Motion (320)  |  Poor (139)

No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Diet (56)  |  Disease (340)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Other (2233)  |  Treatment (135)

Teach your tongue to say “I do not know” and you will progress.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Humility (31)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Progress (492)  |  Say (989)  |  Teach (299)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Will (2350)

The basic symptoms which occur in pneumonia and which are never lacking are acute fever, sticking pain in the side, short rapid breaths, serrated pulse, and cough, mostly with sputum.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Acute (8)  |  Basic (144)  |  Breath (61)  |  Cough (8)  |  Fever (34)  |  Never (1089)  |  Occur (151)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pneumonia (8)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Short (200)  |  Side (236)  |  Sticking (3)  |  Symptom (38)

The following lesson is of great and important significance, worthy of committing to memory, namely, in arranging the composition of medications one should pay careful attention and direct one’s willpower, because many times antagonistic medicines become mixed in which are useless and inappropriate for their intended use.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Antagonistic (3)  |  Attention (196)  |  Become (821)  |  Composition (86)  |  Direct (228)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inappropriate (5)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Medication (8)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Memory (144)  |  Significance (114)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Will Power (3)

The nose is the first and foremost instrument of respiration.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  First (1302)  |  Foremost (11)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Nose (14)  |  Respiration (14)

The pulse of a newborn during the neonatal period is very rapid … the pulse of old people is rather slow … the pulse is fullest and strongest in the prime years of youth.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Baby (29)  |  Newborn (5)  |  Old (499)  |  People (1031)  |  Period (200)  |  Prime (11)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Slow (108)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Year (963)  |  Youth (109)

The sign which points to strong, unfailing health is a uniform pulse which is also totally regular.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Health (210)  |  Point (584)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Regular (48)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Uniform (20)

The signs of liver inflammation [hepatitis] are eight in number, as follows: high fever, thirst, complete anorexia, a tongue which is initially red and then turns black, biliary vomitus initially yellow egg yolk in color, which later turns dark green, pain on the right side which ascends up to the clavicle. … Occasionally a mild cough may occur and a sensation of heaviness which is first felt on the right side and then spreads widely.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 53-54.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascend (30)  |  Color (155)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cough (8)  |  Dark (145)  |  Egg (71)  |  Fever (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Green (65)  |  High (370)  |  Inflammation (7)  |  Liver (22)  |  Mild (7)  |  Number (710)  |  Occur (151)  |  Pain (144)  |  Right (473)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Side (236)  |  Spread (86)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vomit (4)  |  Yellow (31)

The strongest cause in the generation of diseases is the predisposition of the body which is likely to fall ill.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Disease (340)  |  Fall (243)  |  Generation (256)  |  Illness (35)  |  Likelihood (10)  |  Predisposition (4)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Susceptibility (3)

The worst city is that which is sheltered from the east winds and in which hot and cold winds blow.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Blow (45)  |  Blowing (22)  |  City (87)  |  Cold (115)  |  East (18)  |  Hot (63)  |  Shelter (23)  |  Wind (141)  |  Worst (57)

Twitching occurs in all parts that can stretch, but never occurs in bones and cartilages, because bones and cartilages do not stretch in any way.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Bone (101)  |  Cartilage (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Never (1089)  |  Occur (151)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Twitch (2)  |  Way (1214)

With an illness affecting the lungs, … namely phthisis, there develops rounding of the nail as a rainbow.
— Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Maimonides
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Develop (278)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Illness (35)  |  Lung (37)  |  Nail (8)  |  Rainbow (17)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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