Paracelsus 1493 – 1541

Theophrastus von Hohenheim, who took the Latinized name Paracelsus, was a Swiss-German physician, alchemist, and natural philosopher and one of the principal figures in the early-modern revolt against Galenic medicine. He worked as an army surgeon, mining doctor, and itinerant healer across Europe, and was briefly municipal physician and lecturer at Basel until his attacks on the medical establishment forced him to flee. His extensive writings on medicine, alchemy, and natural philosophy introduced systematic chemical remedies, the doctrine of the dose, and an organic natural philosophy that influenced later Renaissance thought from Bohme through Goethe.

Key facts

Nationality: Swiss
Era: Modern
Movements: Renaissance

Selected quotes

Attributed to Paracelsus:

“All things are poison; the dose alone makes the poison.”
Attributed to Paracelsus:

“Nature is the great teacher; the physician is her translator.”
Attributed to Paracelsus:

“He who would heal must first know himself.”
Attributed to Paracelsus:

“Medicine is not only science but also wisdom and love.”
Attributed to Paracelsus:

“What the eye sees not and the heart loves not, the head will not labor for.”