It Has Been Said

Abstract

IT HAS BEEN SAID and collected by DAVID DAVIS* "Doctors do not cry but men do."—Harry Weiss "Prose books are the show dogs I breed and sell to support my cat."—Robert GiRAVES "Curiosity about the private life may be of three kinds: the useful, the harmless , and the impertinent."—T. S. Eliot "The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down."—T. S. Eliot "These docs, they always ask you how you live so long. I tell 'em, 'If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself "—Eubie Blake "A good doctor should know a little about everything—even medicine."— Baron Montesquieu ' "Methodologists remind me of people who clean their glasses so thoroughly tfiat they never have time to look through them."—Sigmund Freud "Slogans save the expenditure of thinking."—Sigmund Freud "The greatest discoveries of surgery are anesthesia, asepsis, and roentgenology —and none was made by a surgeon."—Martin H. Fischer "I hate reasonable people—the activity of their brains sucks up all the blood out of their hearts. I was once afraid of turning out reasonable myself."—W. B. Yeats ""Address: 1823 Bayou Shore Drive, Galveston, Texas 77551. Material appearing under this title is collected with the aim of making the serious a bit less serious, the ponderous a bit less heavy, and the reading hours a bit more fun. Toward this goal we invite a guest editor of this feature for each issue. Will readers volunteer to share their senses of humor by collecting or recollecting items that have brought smiles to their faces? We invite your participation. Originals are also welcome. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 33, 3 · Spring 1990 \ 375 "The three greatest things in the world—love, beauty, and happiness—have this feature in common, that they are utterly incapable of measurement."—A.J. Balfour "Mind—a mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itselfwith."—Ambrose Bierce "The chief disadvantage of knowing more and seeing farther than others is to be not generally understood."—William Hazlitt "A fool can learn to say all the things a wise man says and to say them on the same occasion."—J. Kekes "Intelligence is the art of good guessing."—Horace Barlow "It doesn't matter that everything has already been said. No one was listening ."—André Gide "All progress is only half as great as it first appears."—J. N. Nestroy "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."—Mark Twain "Praise is like smoking. It is warm and pleasant as long as you don't inhale."— Adolf Meyer "The old men do not grow wise. They grow careful."—Ernest Hemingway "All too often the most exciting of biochemical findings in psychiatry turn out to have the most mundane explanation."—Lancet Editorial "As in a sport, you cannot score every time. There are moments, and many of them, when it is important to pass the ball so that a colleague may eventually score."—Peter Ustinov "Aging is a birth-defect."—Al Rosenthal "If you can walk through life with a smile, you are probably not paying attention ."—Steve Allen "It is easier to be wise for others than for oneself."—La Rochefoucauld 376 It Has Been Said and collected by MICHAEL UHRINt "Productivity in science will thrive only if curiosity is very deep, indeed, insatiable ."—Hans Krebs "Memory is the mother of all wisdom."—Aeschylus "It was only in my 40's that I started to feel young."—Henry Miller "I don't want to make money. I just want to be wonderful."—Marilyn Monroe "... the safest and soundest society is one which is rich in people who are excellent in different ways."—Hans Krebs "A humble man is not disturbed by praise."—Thomas Merton "Only little boys and old men sneer at love...