One has a greater sense of intellectual degradation¹ after an interview with a doctor than from any human experience.

Alice James

Let's not kid ourselves. Whatever we diagnose, most patients, if they don't die, get well by themselves. Our job is mainly to try to make them feel better; do no harm.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Wake Up Call, 1992

Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them.

Dr. Martin Henry Fischer

Don't live in a town where there are no doctors.

Jewish Proverb

That’s the thing about pain, it demands to be felt.

John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, 2012

[Medicine is] a collection of uncertain prescriptions² the results of which, taken collectively, are more fatal than useful to mankind.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)

Orthodox medicine has not found an answer to your complaint. However, luckily for you, I happen to be a quack³.

Richter cartoon caption⁴

One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.

Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919), Aphorisms⁵ from his Bedside Teachings (1961) p. 105

The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.

Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919), In H. Cushing, Life of Sir William Osler (1925)

Formerly⁶, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin (1973) "Science and Scientism"

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

Voltaire (1694 - 1778)