Thomas Sydenham

The arrival of a good clown exercises a more beneficial influence upon the health of a town than of twenty asses laden with drugs.

Nothing in medicine is so insignificant as to merit attention.

The art of medicine was to be properly learned only from its practice and its exercise.

I confidently affirm that the greater part of those who are supposed to have died of gout, have died of the medicine rather than the disease - a statement in which I am supported by observation.

It is my nature to thin where others read.

I watched what method Nature might take, with intention of subduing the symptom by treading in her footsteps.

The generality have considered that disease is but a confused and disordered effort in Nature, thrown down from her proper state, and defending herself in vain.

We may ascertain the worth of the human race, since for its sake God's Only-begotten Son became man, and thereby ennobled the nature that he took upon him.

Lastly, he must remember that he himself hath no exemption from the common lot, but that he is bound by the same laws of mortality, and liable to the same ailments and afflictions with his fellows.