Quotes by Ibn Sīnā

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Idleness and laziness not only produce ignorance, but at the same time are the cause of disease.

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The fool and the fool do not know how to keep a secret, Prudence is truly more expensive than praise, The secret is a prisoner if you keep it hidden, You are its prisoner if you divulge it.

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The doctor has three weapons: the word, the plant and the knife.

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The reproductive force has its seat in a particularly sensitive organ, in order that, by burning desire, it may facilitate the tendency to join together. Otherwise, if it did not offer an opportunity for enjoyment and if it were not the object of ardent desire, no one would have complicated himself with such a thing, because this activity is not necessary for the prolongation of the individual's existence.

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The purpose of the reproductive forces is the preservation of the species, for the longing for eternity is something that comes from the divinity above us all. As regards the inability to prolong the existence of the individual and the ability to prolong the existence of the species, that force tends to compensate for this existence in a new individual, so that in this way his species is preserved. Thus the nutritive force compensates for all that decays in the individual, and the reproductive force compensates for what decays in the species.

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Wisdom is what prepares us for ultimate happiness in a bitter life.

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The soul is like a glass lantern, knowledge is the light that sustains the flame, and God's wisdom is the oil. If the lantern is lit, you are alive, if it is out - you are dead.

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Everything that undergoes the action of an immediate cause suffers it by means of something analogous which is transmitted to it by that cause, which is clear by induction. The smoke of fire, for example, acts on one or other of the bodies, transmitting to it only its analogue, namely heat. Things happen identically with similar forces among the qualities. Thus a thinking soul acts on another thinking soul like itself, only by transmitting to it its analogue, in a form which the mind can understand; the sword retaliates by transmitting its external form to the object which undergoes its action; the stone sharpens the knife by imparting to its edge the analogue that suits it, namely the uniformity and smoothness of its parts.

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The physician must be endowed with the eye of a hawk, the hands of a woman, the wisdom of a serpent, and the heart of a lion.

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In solitude man would not survive. Everything he needs, he gets thanks to the community.

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It is proper for the philosopher to use symbols and allusions in his books. It is only known how Plato scolded Aristotle for spreading wisdom and ostentatious presentation of knowledge. And Aristotle perfectly agreed with him: "Though I have done this, I have left many lacunae in my books which only a few, the learned and those gifted with reason, will be able to fill."