It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
"There are one or two elementary rules to be observed in the way of handling patients," he remarked, seating himself on the table and swinging his legs. "The most obvious is that you must never let them see that you want them. It should be pure condescension on your part seeing them at all; and the more difficulties you throw in the way of it, the more they think of it. Break your patients in early, and keep them well to heel."
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining a certain distance and authority in the doctor-patient relationship.
Arthur Conan Doyle's quote reflects a perspective on the dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship, suggesting that doctors should maintain a degree of aloofness in order to be respected and effective. By implying that one should not show eagerness to assist patients, he critiques the notion of placing patients on a pedestal and suggests that this distance reinforces the patient's regard for the physician's authority. This can be interpreted as a commentary on the professional boundaries necessary for effective care.
Themes
DoctorPatientAuthorityRelationshipProfessionalism
In practice
Example use cases
A medical conference discussing approaches to patient care.
More from Arthur Conan Doyle
All quotes →I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
Similar quotes
A lot of women ask themselves why they should bring a child into the world? So that it will be hungry, so that it will be cold, so that it will be betrayed and humiliated, so that it will be slaughtered by war or disease? They reject the hope that its hunger will be satisfied, its cold warmed, that loyalty and respect will accompany it through life, that it will be a devote a life to the effort to eliminate war and disease.
Oriana FallaciRead
Because we believe that our ethnic group, our society, our political party, our God, is better than your God, we kill each other.
Neale Donald WalschRead
India has 2,000,000 gods and worships them all. In religion, all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.
Mark TwainRead
In the long run the ideas of the majority, however detrimental they may be, will carry on. The future of mankind depends on the ability of the elite to influence public opinion in the right direction.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
the psychological need to believe that others take you as seriously as you take yourself. There is nothing particularly wrong with it, as psychological needs go, but yet of course we should always remember that a deep need for anything from other people makes us easy pickings.
David Foster WallaceRead
The beauty of it is that we have to content ourselves with the recognition of the miracle, beyond which there is no legitimate way out.
Albert EinsteinRead