Quote of the Day
Jul. 6th, 2005 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nancylebov"Hygiene is the corruption of medicine by morality. It is
impossible to find a hygienist who does not debase his theory
of the healthful with a theory of the virtuous. The whole
hygienic art, indeed, resolves itself into an ethical exhortation.
This brings it, at the end, into diametrical conflict with
medicine proper. The true aim of medicine is not to make
men virtuous; it is to safeguard and rescue them from the
consequences of their vices. The physician does not preach
repentence; he offers absolution."
-- H.L. Mencken, The Smart Set, May 1919
Quoted by David Wright Sr. in alt.fan.heinlein
impossible to find a hygienist who does not debase his theory
of the healthful with a theory of the virtuous. The whole
hygienic art, indeed, resolves itself into an ethical exhortation.
This brings it, at the end, into diametrical conflict with
medicine proper. The true aim of medicine is not to make
men virtuous; it is to safeguard and rescue them from the
consequences of their vices. The physician does not preach
repentence; he offers absolution."
-- H.L. Mencken, The Smart Set, May 1919
Quoted by David Wright Sr. in alt.fan.heinlein
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 12:50 pm (UTC)Or ablution, anyway.