QuoteProject
The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it
Maimonides
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Focus on treating the whole person rather than just the symptoms of the disease.

This quote emphasizes the importance of holistic medicine, suggesting that healthcare providers should prioritize understanding and addressing the individual needs and experiences of patients, rather than solely concentrating on the medical condition itself. It highlights the significance of empathy and the personalized approach in healthcare, advocating for a deeper connection between healthcare providers and patients to facilitate more effective treatment outcomes.

Themes

HealthcarePatientHolisticTreatmentEmpathy

In practice

Example use cases

In a medical seminar discussing patient care techniques.

More from Maimonides

If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others; for the knowledge of truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.
MaimonidesRead
There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.
MaimonidesRead
God who preceded all existence is a refuge.
MaimonidesRead
When man possesses a good, sound body that does not overpower him nor disturb the equilibrium in him, he possesses a divine gift. In short, a good constitution facilitates the rule of the soul over the body, but it is not impossible to conquer a bad constitution by training.
MaimonidesRead
If the whole earth is infinitely small in comparison with the sphere of the stars, what is man compared with all these created beings!
MaimonidesRead
One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good - he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad - he and the world is destroyed.
MaimonidesRead

Similar quotes

Fasting is the greatest remedy-- the physician within.
ParacelsusRead
That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep.
Aldous HuxleyRead
The poorest parts of the world are by and large the places in which one can best view the worst of medicine and not because doctors in these countries have different ideas about what constitutes modern medicine. It's the system and its limitations that are to blame.
Paul FarmerRead
Truly affordable but high-quality health care tools and services are the only means by which quality health care can be provided to all.
Muhammad YunusRead
If a product has an endless list of ingredients, and you can't pronounce half of them, I would think twice about bringing them into your home.
Philippe Cousteau, Jr.Read
A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist; he is either, like the surgeon, a craftsman, or, like the physician and the psychologist, an artist. This means that in order to be a good doctor a man must also have a good character, that is to say, whatever weaknesses and foibles he may have, he must love his fellow human beings in the concrete and desire their good before his own.
W. H. AudenRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.