David Schneider > Quotes

“In my lecture book here, I see that in the last lecture I gave at Santa Fe, I discussed the Five Fears. I must have discussed them because they’re written down here: Fear of Loss of Livelihood, Fear of Loss of Reputation, Fear of Unusual States of Mind, Fear of Death, and Fear of Speaking Before an Assembly. Probably I’m experiencing all five of these fears at this point, right now. Except Loss of Reputation—it’s too late for that.”
― David Schneider, Street Zen: The Life and Work of Issan Dorsey

“On the left bank of the River Seine, in Paris’s labyrinthine Latin Quarter, are situated dozens of buildings associated with the Sorbonne, including the Université Paris 5 René Descartes. Located on the rue de l’École de Médecine, the university’s greatest building is a 17th-century colonnaded structure that houses an enthralling museum of medicine and a library. Inside the building, at the end of the lobby, stands a life-size stone sculpture of a veiled woman who gently lifts a shroud away from her face and upper body, revealing her placid countenance and exposed breasts. The sculpture is titled La Nature se dévoilant à la science, or Nature is revealed through science.”
― David Schneider, The Invention of Surgery: A History of Modern Medicine: From the Renaissance to the Implant Revolution