28+ Avicenna Quotes On Medicine, Religion And Money

Avicenna was a Persian polymath and philosopher who lived in the 10th and 11th centuries. He is known for his works in the fields of philosophy, medicine, and science, and is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Islamic Golden Age. He is also known for his canonical works on philosophy, the most famous of which is The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Avicenna on medicine, love, religion.

Top 10 Avicenna Quotes

1. Width of life is more important than length of life.
2. There are no incurable diseases — only the lack of will. There are no worthless herbs — only the lack of knowledge.
3. The different sorts of madness are innumerable.
4. The more brilliant the lightning, the quicker it disappears.
5. I [prefer] a short life with width to a narrow one with length.
6. That whose existence is necessary must necessarily be one essence.
7. 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.
8. Leeches should be kept a day before applying them. They should be squeezed to make them eject the contents of their stomachs.
9. Is it the fault of wine if a fool drinks it and goes stumbling into darkness?
10. The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.

Avicenna Short Quotes

• Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.
• As to the mental essence, we find it in infants devoid of every mental form.
• In God alone, essence (what He is) and existence (that he is) coincide.
• A horse is simply a horse.
• An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.

Avicenna Famous Quotes And Sayings

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. — Avicenna

Medicine deals with the states of health and disease in the human body. It is a truism of philosophy that a complete knowledge of a thing can only be obtained by elucidating its causes and antecedents, provided, of course, such causes exist. In medicine it is, therefore, necessary that causes of both health and disease should be determined. — Avicenna

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. — Avicenna

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. — Avicenna

Disease is an abnormal state of the body which primarily and independently produces a disturbance in the normal functions of the body. It may be an abnormality of temperament or form (structure). Symptom is a manifestation of some abnormal state in the body. It may be harmful as a colic pain or harmless as the flushing of cheeks in peripneumonia. — Avicenna

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

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

Prayer is that which enables the soul to realize its divinity. Through prayer human beings worship absolute truth, and seek an eternal reward. Prayer is the foundation-stone of religion; and religion is the means by which the soul is purified of all that pollutes it. Prayer is the worship of the first cause of all things, the supreme ruler of all the world, the source of all strength. Prayer is the adoration of the one whose being is necessary. — Avicenna

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. — Avicenna

Mountains have been formed by one [or other] of the causes of the formation of stone, most probably from agglutinative clay which slowly dried and petrified during ages of which we have no record. It seems likely that this habitable world was in former days uninhabitable and, indeed, submerged beneath the ocean. Then, becoming exposed little by little, it petrified in the course of ages. — Avicenna

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. — Avicenna

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. — Avicenna

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

Life Lessons by Avicenna

1. Avicenna taught that knowledge is the key to understanding the world and that it should be pursued with passion and dedication.
2. He also emphasized the importance of understanding the physical world through observation and experimentation in order to gain insight into the spiritual world.
3. Finally, Avicenna believed that the pursuit of knowledge should be done with humility, as it is a lifelong journey that requires patience and an open mind.