"It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell."

"Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue."

"Without health life is not life it is only a state of langour and suffering - an image of death."

"The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows."

"A brain is a society of very small, simple modules that cannot be said to be thinking, that are not smart in themselves. But when you have a network of them together, out of that arises a kind of smartness."

"I would like the Medical Society to be one of the resources for information about the influences that have an impact on our patients and our practices."

"It is a profound truth that an hour spent in deep contemplation is worth a year of unguided wandering — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"I remember reminding myself that beauty is an opinion, not a fact. And it has always made me feel better."