Fortunately, somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only thing that protects our freedom, despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it or kill it off altogether.
Luis BunuelRead
In the name of Hippocrates, doctors have invented the most exquisite form of torture ever known to man: survival.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the medical profession's approach to treating patients, suggesting that survival often comes with added suffering.
Luis Bunuel's quote highlights the ironic relationship between medicine and the experience of illness. By invoking Hippocrates, the father of medicine, he underscores how the advances in medical science, intended to preserve life, can sometimes lead to prolonged suffering, making survival feel like a form of torture rather than a blessing. This statement prompts reflection on the ethics of medical practice and the true cost of survival in a society that prioritizes life at all costs.
Themes
MedicineSurvivalSufferingEthicsHippocrates
In practice
Example use cases
During a medical ethics seminar, a speaker uses this quote to provoke discussion about the consequences of medical treatments.
More from Luis Bunuel
All quotes βI find it [science] analytical, pretentious and superficial-largely because it does not address itself to dreams, chance, laughter, feelings, or paradox-in other words,-all the things I love the most.
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In any society, the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a painter or writer cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of non-conformity alive. Thanks to them the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is important.
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A paranoiac like a poet, is born, not made.
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I say to hell with the work you have to do to earn a living! That kind of work does us no honor; all it does is fill up the bellies of the pigs who exploit us. But the work you do because you like to do it, because you've heard the call, you've got a vocation - that's ennobling! We should all be able to work like that. Look at me, Saturno - I don't work. And I don't care if they hang me, I won't work! Yet I'm alive! I may live badly, but at least I don't have to work to do it!
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I would give my life for a man who is looking for the truth. But I would gladly kill a man who thinks that he has found the truth.
Luis BunuelRead
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