Talk:Hippocrates

Unsourced

Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Hippocrates. --Antiquary 18:11, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

• That which is used develops. That which is not used wastes away.

Famous "quote". Often stated, since the 1970s and before. Often attributed to Hippocrates. Never sourced. (Currently stated at w:en:Strength training#History.) - A876 (talk) 20:59, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

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

• I approve of theorizing if it lays its foundation in incident, and deduces its conclusions in accordance with phenomena.

• Idleness and lack of occupation tend — nay are dragged — towards evil.

• If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.

• It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.

• Let your food be medicine and your medicine be food.

• People believe that this disease is sacred simply because they don't know what causes it? But some day I believe they will, and the moment they figure out why people have epilepsy, it will cease to be considered divine.

I doubt that Hippocrates would have used language like "figure out". - 80.86.36.97 13:06, 9 July 2004‎

Bear in mind: Hippocrates wrote in Greek. Any English version may loosely use idioms available to the translator, which does not in itself invalidate the source.--IGE (talk) 11:20, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

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

• Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

• There are, in fact, two things: science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

• Walking is man's best medicine.

• Before you heal someone, ask him if he's willing to give up the things that make him sick.

Spurious

• War is the only proper school of the surgeon.

This quote is false, being based on Hippocrates - The Physician 14 which states that "Related to this is the surgery of wounds arising in military service, which concerns the extraction of missiles. In city practice experience of these is but little, for very rarely even in a whole lifetime are there civil or military combats. In fact such things occur most frequently and continuously in armies abroad. Thus, the person intending to practice this kind of surgery must serve in the army, and accompany it on expeditions abroad; for in this way he would become experienced in this practice." -‎ 81.235.144.52 09:50, 24 December 2015

The disputed quote

I have just added the source of the disputed quote “be food thy medicine”.

I added the Greek text from the corpus, since it is also tricky to translate (it needs a revision and probably some improvement).

I hope it helps to understand where the misunderstanding comes from.

For those who are able to read French, this may be a good explanation.

Feel free to edit or correct what I wrote, --Ousia (talk) 18:23, 12 August 2023 (UTC)