Medicine and public health are guided by research, compassion, leadership, and advocacy — all expressed through meaningful words. This page highlights quotes from scientists, medical pioneers, health workers, and public officials whose statements influenced treatment, policy, discovery, and awareness. Explore how words help advance health and human well-being.
Select a quote below to see how it influenced health history.
Hippocrates
January 01, Unknown – Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food
Martin Luther King Jr., 1966
March 25, 1966 – Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death.
Florence Nightingale, 1860
January 03, 1860 – The ultimate goal of nursing is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act
Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965
January 04, 1965 – I propose that we begin a massive attack on crippling and killing diseases.
Florence Nightingale, 1859
January 05, 1859 – It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941
January 06, 1941 – We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.
Thomas Jefferson, 1787
January 07, 1787 – Without health there is no happiness. An attention to health, then, should take the place of every other object.
World Health Organization, 1946
July 22, 1946 – The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1826
January 09, 1826 – You are what you eat.
Benjamin Franklin, 1736
January 10, 1736 – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Mahatma Gandhi
January 11, 2025 – It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.
William Osler
January 12, 2025 – The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.
Jim Rohn
January 13, 1991 – Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.
Virgil
January 14, 2025 – The greatest wealth is health.
Eleanor Brownn
January 15, 2025 – Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.
Hippocrates
January 16, 2025 – Walking is man’s best medicine.
Hippocrates
January 17, 2025 – Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.
Voltaire
January 18, 2025 – The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Frederick Douglass
January 19, 2025 – It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Martin Luther King Jr., 1966
January 20, 1966 – Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.
Joe Biden, 2021
January 21, 2021 – To heal, we must remember.
Mike Ryan, 2021
January 22, 2021 – Too many times in health or public health or in public life we tend to dismantle and try and rebuild
Jonas Salk, 1977
January 23, 1977 – Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality
Florence Nightingale, 1859
January 24, 1859 – It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm
Benjamin Franklin, 1735
January 25, 1735 – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
Florence Nightingale
January 26 — It is the unqualified result of all my experience with the sick, that second only to their need of fresh air is their need of light
Louis Pasteur, 1854
January 27, 1854 – Chance favors the prepared mind
Florence Nightingale, 1859
January 28, 1859 – The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm
Sir William Osler, 1912
January 29, 1912 – The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.
Harvey Cushing, 1930
January 30, 1930 – The human brain is the greatest of all organs, and the greatest of all mysteries.
Thomas Sydenham, 1676
January 31, 1676 – The greatest medicine of all is to teach people how not to need it.

