Quotes from Avicenna

In God alone, essence (what He is) and existence (that he is) coincide.

Medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health.

Width of life is more important than length of life.

I [prefer] a short life with width to a narrow one with length.

That whose existence is necessary must necessarily be one essence.

There are no incurable diseases — only the lack of will. There are no worthless herbs — only the lack of knowledge.

Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.

The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.

Width of life is more important than length of life.

Those who deny the first principle should be flogged or burned until they admit that it is not the same thing to be burned and not burned, or whipped and not whipped.

There are no incurable diseases only the lack of will. There are no worthless herbs only the lack of knowledge.

Medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health.

It is evident that everything which does not exist at first and then exists, is determined by something other than itself.

God, the supreme being, is neither circumscribed by space, nor touched by time; he cannot be found in a particular direction, and his essence cannot change. The secret conversation is thus entirely spiritual; it is a direct encounter between God and the soul, abstracted from all material constraints.

An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.

The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.

Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.

Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.

Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.

As to the mental essence, we find it in infants devoid of every mental form.

The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.

The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.

An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.