Robert W. Winters > Quotes

“A vitamin is a substance that makes you ill if you don’t eat it. —Albert Szent-Györgyi, chemist”
― Robert W. Winters, Accidental Medical Discoveries: How Tenacity and Pure Dumb Luck Changed the World

“in 1591 the Calvinists convicted a distinguished noblewoman, Lady Eufame Macalyene, for the crime of seeking pain relief from Agnes Sampson, her midwife, during her labor with twin sons. Sampson reported the request to the religious authorities, who found that she had violated the doctrine of the primeval curse on woman. She was burned alive on Castle Hill in Edinburgh as punishment.”
― Robert W. Winters, Accidental Medical Discoveries: How Tenacity and Pure Dumb Luck Changed the World

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. —Henri-Louis Bergson,”
― Robert W. Winters, Accidental Medical Discoveries: How Tenacity and Pure Dumb Luck Changed the World

“In 1937, Szent-Györgyi was notified that he was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The prize committee had argued long and acrimoniously about selecting Szent-Györgyi, so much so that after the final meeting, when the chairman, Hans Christian Jacobaus, came out to make the announcement, he fell dead on the spot with a heart attack. The award carried $40,000 and a gold medal. In Szent-Györgyi’s own words: “The Nobel Prize was the only big lump sum of money I have ever seen, I had to do something with it. The easiest way to drop this hot potato was to invest it. Since I knew World War II was coming, I was afraid that if I bought shares that would rise in war, I would wish for the war. So I asked my broker to buy shares that would go down in the event of war. I lost money but I saved my soul.”
― Robert W. Winters, Accidental Medical Discoveries: How Tenacity and Pure Dumb Luck Changed the World

“Robert Liston, a famous surgeon, in setting out to best his own speed record for amputation of the leg, accidentally amputated one of his patient’s testicles and two of his assistant’s fingers.”
― Robert W. Winters, Accidental Medical Discoveries: How Tenacity and Pure Dumb Luck Changed the World

“Once in a while, one will stumble upon the truth, but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.”
― Robert W. Winters, Accidental Medical Discoveries: How Tenacity and Pure Dumb Luck Changed the World

“The greatest obstacle to knowledge is the illusion of knowledge. —Daniel Boorstin,”
― Robert W. Winters, Accidental Medical Discoveries: How Tenacity and Pure Dumb Luck Changed the World