Galen Quotes
Aelius Galenus, known as Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher of the Roman Empire and the most influential medical author of antiquity. Trained in the great medical schools of the eastern Mediterranean, he served as physician to the gladiators of Pergamon before becoming court physician to the emperors Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, and Septimius Severus. The quotes below are attributed to Galen, organized by topic.
Browse Galen by topic
Galen on God
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“He who has two cakes of bread, let him dispose of one of them for some flowers of the narcissus; for bread is the food of the body, and the narcissus is the food of the soul.”
Latter day attributions | Arabian Society In The Middle Ages , by Edward William Lane, (1883) citing Nowwájee, En-, Shems-ed-deen Moḥammad (died 1454), Ḥalbet El-Kumeyt , at footnote 167.
Galen on Happiness
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Attributed to Galen:
“Confidence and hope do more good than physic.”
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Attributed to Galen:
“Use, do not abuse: neither abstinence nor excess gives happiness.”
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“Employment is Nature's physician, and is essential to human happiness.”
Latter day attributions | In: Day's Collacon: an Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations, (1884), p. 223.
Galen on Justice
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“Diogenes received an invitation to dine with one whose house was splendidly furnished, in the highest order and taste, and nothing therein wanting. Diogenes, hawking, and as if about to spit, looked in all directions, and finding nothing adapted thereto, spat right in the face of the master. He, indignant, asked why he did so? "Because," Diogenes, "I saw nothing so dirty and filthy in all your house. For the walls were covered with pictures, the floors of the most precious tessellated character — and ranged with the various images of gods , and other ornamental figures.”
Galen, Exhortation to Study the Arts , Coxe (1846), p. 479; cf. Diogenes Laërtius , vi. 32.
Galen on Knowledge
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“The best physician is also a philosopher.”
Quod optimus medicus sit quoque philosophus. -
Attributed to Galen:
“Medicine without philosophy is blind, philosophy without medicine empty.”
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“Diogenes received an invitation to dine with one whose house was splendidly furnished, in the highest order and taste, and nothing therein wanting. Diogenes, hawking, and as if about to spit, looked in all directions, and finding nothing adapted thereto, spat right in the face of the master. He, indignant, asked why he did so? "Because," Diogenes, "I saw nothing so dirty and filthy in all your hou”
Galen, Exhortation to Study the Arts , Coxe (1846), p. 479; cf. Diogenes Laërtius , vi. 32. -
“Diogenes the Cynic , it is related, was mighty of all people in regard to everything from self-control to endurance. He indulged in sexual lusts, not associating it with pleasure , an attractive good thing to some, but because of the harm that the retention of semen would cause if he avoided the habit of releasing it. When a prostitute who promised to visit him was delayed for some time, he rubbed”
Galen, On the Affected Parts , Alard (1813), p. 104. -
“Galen, On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, : PHP III 8.35.1-11 translation: De Lacy, Phillip (1978- 1984) Galen, On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, Berlin. p. 233; cited in: Christopher Jon Elliott. "Galen, Rome and the Second Sophistic." p. 147-8.”
It would be better, I think, for the man who really seeks the truth not to ask what the poets say; rather, he should first learn the method of finding the scientific premises that I discussed in the second book; then he should train and exercise himself in this method; and when his training is sufficiently advanced, then, as he approaches each particular problem, he should enquire into the premise -
“But it is best of all to look at the human skeleton with your own eyes.”
Galen, On Anatomical Procedures , Bk. 1, Ch. 2; as translated by Charles Singer in Galen on Anatomical Procedures (1956), p. 2. -
“The fact is that those who are enslaved to their sects are not merely devoid of all sound knowledge , but they will not even stop to learn!”
Galen, On the Natural Faculties , Bk. 1, sect. 13; cited from Arthur John Brock (trans.) On the Natural Faculties (London: Heinemann, 1963) p. 57. -
“That which is , grows, while that which is not , becomes.”
Galen, On the Natural Faculties , Bk. 2, sect. 3; cited from Arthur John Brock (trans.) On the Natural Faculties (London: Heinemann, 1963) p. 139.
Galen on Nature
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“Galen, On the Natural Faculties , Bk. 1, sect. 13; cited from Arthur John Brock (trans.) On the Natural Faculties (London: Heinemann, 1963) p. 57.”
The fact is that those who are enslaved to their sects are not merely devoid of all sound knowledge , but they will not even stop to learn! -
“Galen, On the Natural Faculties , Bk. 2, sect. 3; cited from Arthur John Brock (trans.) On the Natural Faculties (London: Heinemann, 1963) p. 139.”
That which is , grows, while that which is not , becomes. -
“Every animal is sad after coitus except the human female and the rooster.”
Latter day attributions
Galen on Virtue
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Attributed to Galen:
“He cures most successfully who is most trusted.”