I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.
Nearly all men die of their medicines, not of their diseases.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the idea that often the treatments we use can be more harmful than the diseases themselves.
Moliere's quote reflects the critical view of medicine and its potential dangers, suggesting that the interventions designed to cure or alleviate ailments can sometimes lead to greater harm than the conditions they aim to treat. This statement serves as a cautionary reminder to consider the effects of medical treatments and to maintain a balance between healing and the potential for harm, prompting deeper reflection on the practices of healthcare and the importance of careful consideration in medical decisions.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a medical ethics discussion, I might use this quote to highlight the risks of over-medication.
More from Moliere
All quotes →Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.
Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart. - Molière, The Misanthrope
Long is the road from conception to completion.
Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.
Similar quotes
Biology occupies a position among the sciences at once marginal and central. Marginal because-the living world constituting but a tiny and very "special" part of the universe-it does not seem likely that the study of living beings will ever uncover general laws applicable outside the biosphere. But if the ultimate aim of the whole of science is indeed, as I believe, to clarify man's relationship to the universe, then biology must be accorded a central position . . .
In evolution, as in all areas of science, our knowledge is incomplete. But the entire success of the scientific enterprise has depended on an insistence that these gaps be filled by natural explanations, logically derived from confirmable evidence. Because "intelligent design" theories are based on supernatural explanations, they can have nothing to do with science.
It is in our genes to understand the universe if we can, to keep trying even if we cannot, and to be enchanted by the act of learning all the way.
In fast moving fields like cancer, where doctors tailor treatments based on evidence that's constantly evolving, two years can be an eternity of waiting to learn about important science. For some patients, that interval can be fatal.
A science is said to be useful if its development tends to accentuate the existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth, or more directly promotes the destruction of human life.
The moment I saw the model and heard about the complementing base pairs I realized that it was the key to understanding all the problems in biology we had found intractable - it was the birth of molecular biology.