Aphorisms of Hippocrates

[It] receives [the form] first. Does not Cicero himself derive much of his work from Plato and Demosthenes? Indeed, Clearchus testifies that he saw the very Jew from whom Aristotle himself learned. Do not the leading physicians—Aëtius, Oribasius, Paulus Ægyneta, Alexander Trallianus, Actuarius—mostly write the same things word for word? Were they, on that account, hissed out of every theater by the consensus of the hands? Thus, the firm opinion stands with me: to bear with an unbroken spirit the criticisms? original: "ovsyμoîs" of all rivals, provided that my writings reach men for some use. If I had wished to publish these for glory, I could certainly have made everything more splendid and entirely alien to the writing style of others. Yet, for your use, friendly reader, I could not have made them better: for I compiled those things for myself and my students, not for others. Are certain things said in the same way by others who write about the same subject? Should they have to report things that are entirely different? Must a boat be called a boat, or is truth not one and the same? How, I ask, would these [critics] receive Avicenna, Paulus, Aëtius, Oribasius, and many other most learned ancient physicians if they were alive? They copy all their work almost verbatim from Galen and other ancient physicians. These most learned men could certainly have done otherwise if they had wanted; but they dedicated everything to utility, not to their own glory. Do not all dogmatists physicians who follow established medical doctrines draw from that ocean of healing, Galen? What, I ask, is there that is well-said by others that you would not find in him? Why, I ask, is it permitted for others to draw from that fountain more than for me? You betray your ignorance when you think that the many things you read in others come from their own genius, when they flowed from Galen and Hippocrates; soon, if you see those same things inserted into other writings, you think they were stolen from there. You truly reveal your own lack of skill, as you have never perused the writings of Galen, and thus you do not know these [facts]—nor do we.