21 Quotes by Avicenna
Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina, was a Persian polymath who lived from 980 to 1037. He was a philosopher, scientist, physician, and mathematician, and is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the Islamic Golden Age. Avicenna’s most famous work is the “Canon of Medicine,” which was used as a medical textbook in Europe and the Islamic world for centuries. He also made significant contributions to the fields of philosophy and metaphysics, and his ideas on the nature of the soul and God continue to be studied and debated today. (Bio)
Avicenna Quotes
There are no incurable diseases — only the lack of will. There are no worthless herbs — only the lack of knowledge. (Meaning)
Width of life is more important than length of life.
The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit. (Meaning)
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.
The more brilliant the lightning, the quicker it disappears.
I [prefer] a short life with width to a narrow one with length.
When you do not know the nature of the malady, leave it to nature; do not strive to hasten matters. For either nature will bring about the cure or it will itself reveal clearly what the malady really is.
Medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health.
The different sorts of madness are innumerable.
It is in the nature of water … to become transformed into earth through a predominating earthy virtue; … it is in the nature of earth to become transformed into water through a predominating aqueous virtue.
In God alone, essence (what He is) and existence (that he is) coincide.
That whose existence is necessary must necessarily be one essence.
Pain is a sensation produced by something contrary to the course of nature and this sensation is set up by one of two circumstances: either a very sudden change of the temperament (or the bad effect of a contrary temperament) or a solution of continuity.
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.
As to the mental essence, we find it in infants devoid of every mental form.
A horse is simply a horse.
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.
The physical signs of measles are nearly the same as those of smallpox, but nausea and inflammation is more severe, though the pains in the back are less.
Leeches should be kept a day before applying them. They should be squeezed to make them eject the contents of their stomachs.
Pure earth does not petrify, because the predominance of dryness over [i.e. in] the earth endows it not with coherence but rather with crumbliness. In general, stone is formed in two ways only (a) through the hardening of clay, and (b) by the congelation [of waters].
― Avicenna Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an impact-driven creator at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 life goals around the globe. Tal's journey and recent book, The Art of Fully Living, inspired him to found Elevate Society.
