The art is long, life is short
HippocratesRead
From nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations
Interpretation
The mind is the source of all our emotions and experiences, both positive and negative.
Hippocrates emphasizes the pivotal role of the brain in shaping our emotional experiences and joys, highlighting that it is through our thoughts and mental processes that we derive happiness as well as sorrow. This underscores the dual capability of the mind where it can produce both the heights of joy and the depths of despair, suggesting that our mental state profoundly impacts our overall experience of life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about mental health, I might quote Hippocrates to illustrate the impact of our thoughts.
The art is long, life is short
The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile; these make up the nature of this body, and through these he feels pain or enjoys health. Now he enjoys the most perfect health when these elements are duly proportioned to one another in respect of compounding, power and bulk, and when they are perfectly mingled.
That which is used - develops. That which is not used wastes away.
Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.
Wine is an appropriate article for mankind, both for the healthy body and for the ailing man.
Walking is man's best medicine.
I would not be beholden to a tyrant, for his acts of tyranny. For it is but usurpation in him to save, as their rightful lord, the lives of men over whom he has no title to reign.
One-third to one-half of humanity are said to go to bed hungry every night. In the Old Stone Age the fraction must have been much smaller. This is the era of hunger unprecedented. Now, in the time of the greatest technical power, is starvation an institution. Reverse another venerable formula: the amount of hunger increases relatively and absolutely with the evolution of culture.
The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.
The Olympic Movement is a 20th century religion. Where there is no injustice of caste, of race, of family, of wealth.
I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.
Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a riband to stick in his coat.
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