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Famous Avicenna Quotes

“But the fact is that when wine is taken in moderation, it gives rise to a large amount of breath, whose character is balanced, and whose luminosity is strong and brilliant. Hence wine disposes greatly to gladness, and the person is subject to quite trivial exciting agents. The breath now takes up the impression of agents belonging to the present time more easily than it does those which relate to the future; it responds to agents conducive to delight rather than those conducive to a sense of beauty.”

GivingPersonsDoeCharacterFactsStrongTakenSubjectsAmountExcitingBreathsWineDelightBrilliantImpressionAgentsRelateBelongingBalancedModerationGladnessPresent Time
Book:The Canon of Medicine of Avicenna
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“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.”

MayStatesBodyPainFormProduceHealthDiseaseNormalFunctionStructureManifestationCheeksSymptomsTemperamentAbnormalDisturbanceAbnormalityFlushingColic
Book:The Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn Fī'l-ṭibb)
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“Medicine is the science by which we learn the various states of the human body in health and when not in health, and the means by which health is likely to be lost and, when lost, is likely to be restored back to health. In other words, it is the art whereby health is conserved and the art whereby it is restored after being lost. While some divide medicine into a theoretical and a practical [applied] science, others may assume that it is only theoretical because they see it as a pure science. But, in truth, every science has both a theoretical and a practical side.”

HumansMayMeanArtStatesBodyLostSidesHealthPureMedicineAssumingVariousPracticalsDividesHuman BodyTheoreticalApplied Science
Author:Avicenna
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“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.”

TwoPainCoursesEffectsHealthCircumstancesSolutionsContrarySensationsTemperamentContinuitySudden Change
Book:The Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn Fī'l-ṭibb)
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“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.”

WorldFirstsHumansMeanSoulWisdomCausesRealizingPrayerHuman BeingsSourceEternalWorshipAll ThingsStonesAbsolutesFoundationRewardsSupremeIslamicDivinityRulersAdorationAbsolute Truth
Author:Avicenna
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“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.”

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Book:De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum, being sections of the Kitāb al-shifâ: The Latin and Arabic texts, edited with an English translation of the latter and with critical notes
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“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.”

WorldLittlesHas BeensSeemsAgeCoursesCausesRecordsBecomingMountainOceanStonesFormerExposedClayFormationSubmerged
Book:De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum, being sections of the Kitāb al-shifâ: The Latin and Arabic texts, edited with an English translation of the latter and with critical notes
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“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.”

ShouldHumansStatesPhilosophyBodyScienceCoursesCausesDealsDiseaseMedicineDeterminedHuman BodyDiagnosisTruism
Book:The Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn Fī'l-ṭibb)
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“The theory of medicine, therefore, presents what is useful in thought, but does not indicate how it is to be applied in practice-the mode of operation of these principles. The theory, when mastered, gives us a certain kind of knowledge. Thus we say, for example, there are three forms of fevers and nine constitutions. The practice of medicine is not the work which the physician carries out, but is that branch of medical knowledge which, when acquired, enables one to form an opinion upon which to base the proper plan of treatment.”

GivingKindDoeFormScienceCertainThreeOpinionPrinciplesPracticePlansExampleTheoryConstitutionMedicineMedicalNineOperationsBranchesTreatmentCarriePhysiciansFeverDiagnosisPractice Of MedicineMedical Knowledge
Book:The Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn Fī'l-ṭibb)
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