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Avicenna Quotes (980-1037)
Physicist, Philosopher, Poet
About Avicenna
Avicenna (Persian: ابن سینا )(c. 980 in Balkh, Khorasan – 1037 in Hamedan), also known as Ibn Sīnā and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna (Greek Aβιτζιανός), was an Iranian Muslim polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. He was also an astronomer, chemist, Hafiz, logician, mathematician, poet, psychologist, physician, physicist, scientist, Sheikh, soldier, statesman and theologian.
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Avicenna quotes.
“An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.”
“I [prefer] a short life with width to a narrow one with length.”
“Religious law makes it illegal for the ignorant to drink wine, but intelligence makes it legal for the intellectual.”
“Those who deny the first principle should be flogged or burned until they admit that it is not the same thing to be burned and not burned, or whipped and not whipped.”
“God, the supreme being, is neither circumscribed by space, nor touched by time; he cannot be found in a particular direction, and his essence cannot change. The secret conversation is thus entirely spiritual; it is a direct encounter between God and the soul, abstracted from all material constraints.”
“The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes. Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health. And because health and sickness and their causes are sometimes manifest, and sometimes hidden and not to be comprehended except by the study of symptoms, we must also study the symptoms of health and disease. Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials. Of these causes there are four kinds: material, efficient, formal, and final.”
Avicenna Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Avicenna quotes by topic.
Avicenna on Space
“God, the supreme being, is neither circumscribed by space, nor touched by time; he cannot be found in a particular direction, and his essence cannot change. The secret conversation is thus entirely spiritual; it is a direct encounter between God and the soul, abstracted from all material constraints.”
Avicenna on Time
“God, the supreme being, is neither circumscribed by space, nor touched by time; he cannot be found in a particular direction, and his essence cannot change. The secret conversation is thus entirely spiritual; it is a direct encounter between God and the soul, abstracted from all material constraints.”
Avicenna on God
“God, the supreme being, is neither circumscribed by space, nor touched by time; he cannot be found in a particular direction, and his essence cannot change. The secret conversation is thus entirely spiritual; it is a direct encounter between God and the soul, abstracted from all material constraints.”
Avicenna on Knowledge
“The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes. Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health. And because health and sickness and their causes are sometimes manifest, and sometimes hidden and not to be comprehended except by the study of symptoms, we must also study the symptoms of health and disease. Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials. Of these causes there are four kinds: material, efficient, formal, and final.”
Misattributed Quotes
Quotes mistakenly credited to Avicenna
About Avicenna
Avicenna (Persian: ابن سینا )(c. 980 in Balkh, Khorasan – 1037 in Hamedan), also known as Ibn Sīnā and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna (Greek Aβιτζιανός), was an Iranian Muslim polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. He was also an astronomer, chemist, Hafiz, logician, mathematician, poet, psychologist, physician, physicist, scientist, Sheikh, soldier, statesman and theologian.
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