Quotes by Anatomists

A nutritive centre, anatomically considered, is merely a cell, the nucleus of which is the permanent source of successive broods of young cells, which from time to time fill the cavity of their parent, and carrying with them the cell wall of the parent, pass off in certain directions, and under various forms, according to the texture or organ of which their parent forms a part.
John Goodsir
If you happen to be one of the people who has a split zygomaticus major muscle, where the lower part of it is tethered to the overlying skin, this will create a dimple in your cheek when you smile.
Alice Roberts
Good God! how should the mitral valves prevent the regurgitation of air and not of blood?
William Harvey
The secret of architectural excellence is to translate the proportions of a dachshund into bricks, mortar and marble.
Christopher Wren
I profess to learn and to teach anatomy not from books but from dissections, not from the tenets of Philosophers but from the fabric of Nature.
William Harvey
I am not accustomed to saying anything with certainty after only one or two observations.
Andreas Vesalius
Deceptions of the senses are the truths of perception.
Johannes Purkinje
Happy to be here, proud to serve.
Keith Allan Moore
...the student of prehistoric man...cannot reject [the Castenedolo skull] as false without doing injury to his sense of truth, and he cannot accept it as fact without shattering his accepted beliefs.
Arthur Keith
Ossa autem alia quae sunt infra basilare non bene ad sensum apparent nisi ossa illa decoquantur, sed propter peccatum dimitiere consuevi. [The bones which are below the os basilare cannot be well seen unless they are removed and boiled, but owing to the sin involved in this I am accustomed to pass them by.]
Mondino de' Liuzzi Mondino dei Luzzi Mundinus de Leuciis
We have to accept that any action we take might promote an equal and opposite reaction that we do not want. We have to realize that even the most noble actions or most obviously correct course can have its dark side that we cannot control or reason our way out of. The fighter of the "just war" must understand that her actions will result in the deaths of other humans; many of whom may be innocent. The pacifist who refuses all war must realize that his inaction might likewise result in the deaths of the innocent. There are no actions without contradiction—and yet we must act, for not to act is also a contradictory action with both positive and negative effects.
John Hunter
The ability to overcome failure--to live through it and move on--is crucial. If we are not willing to face failure--if we don't have the skills to survive it--we have precluded any real creativity or risk. Failure may never become our friend, but if we are to do meaningful work, perhaps failure needs to be our companion.
John Hunter
A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth.
Christopher Wren
Doctrine once sown strikes deep its root, and respect for antiquity influences all men.
William Harvey
The heart of animals is the foundation of their life, the sovereign of everything within them, the sun of their microcosm, that upon which all growth depends, from which all power proceeds.
William Harvey
Doctrine once sown strikes deep its root, and respect for antiquity influences all men.
William Harvey
The heart of animals is the foundation of their life, the sovereign of everything within them, the sun of their microcosm, that upon which all growth depends, from which all power proceeds.
William Harvey
Time is the empty space that allows knowledge—let alone wisdom—to grow.
John Hunter
Those who do not continuously seek knowledge are content to settle for mediocrity.
Keith Allan Moore