Dr. Alexis Carrel Quotes

Life leaps like a geyser for those willing to drill through the rock of inertia.

Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.

The quality of life is more important than life itself.

Men grow when inspired by a high purpose, when contemplating vast horizons. The sacrifice of oneself is not very difficult for one burning with the passion for a great adventure.

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

Religion brings to man an inner strength, spiritual light, and ineffable peace.

Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate....It supplies us with a flow of sustaining power in our daily lives.

It is faith, and not reason, which impels men to action... Intelligence is content to point out the road, but never drives us along it.

All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need to take advice and to receive help from other people.

The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one's day and every night to examine the results obtained.

A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.

Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind, and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.

If the doctor of today does not become the dietician of tomorrow, the dietician of today will become the doctor of tomorrow.

Hard conditions of life are indispensable to bringing out the best in human personality.

The search for God is indeed, an entirely personal undertaking.... the most audacious adventure that one can dare.

Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for apprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.

Those who don't learn to fight worry, die young.

The love of beauty in its multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.

All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.

To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard prudently against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us.

When we pray we link ourselves with an inexhaustible motive power.

Comforts and syphilis are the greatest enemies of mankind.

In man, the things which are not measurable are more important than those which are measurable.

The atmosphere of libraries, lecture rooms and laboratories is dangerous to those who shut themselves up in them too long. It separates us from reality like a fog.

One must train oneself, by small and frequent efforts, to dominate one's feelings.

Everyone makes a greater effort to hurt other people than to help himself.

Jesus knows our world. He does not disdain us like the God of Aristotle. We can speak to Him and He answers us. Although He is a person like ourselves, He is God and transcends all things.

Prayer, like radium, is a luminous and self-generating form of energy.

Like hatred, jealousy is forbidden by the laws of life because it is essentially destructive.

Those who desire to rise as high as our human condition allows, must renounce intellectual pride, the omnipotence of clear thinking, belief in the absolute power of logic.

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.

Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men lifted out of sickness by the power of prayer. It is the only power in the world that overcomes the laws of nature.

Those who do not know how to fight worry die young.

The best way of increasing the [average] intelligence of scientists would be to reduce their number.

The secret of life is to be found in life itself, in the full organic, intellectual and spiritual activities of our body.

Logic never attracts men to the point of carrying them away.

Intelligence is almost useless to the person whose only quality it is.

Scientific civilisation has destroyed the soul of the world.

As to virtue . . . it is an act of the will, a habit which increases the quantity, intensity and quality of life. It builds up, strengthens and vivifies personality.

There are no watertight compartments in our inmost nature.

To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know

Prayer is a cry of distress, a demand for help, a hymn of love.

The modern city consists of...dark, narrow streets full of gasoline fumes, coal dust, and toxic gasses, torn by the noise.

...the influence of the factory upon the physiological and mental state of the workers has been completely neglected.

...in recognition of his work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood-vessels and organs.

Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for comprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.

Prayer like radium is a luminous and self-generating form of energy.

Prayer is a cry of distress a demand for help a hymn of love.

To accomplish our destiny ... we must cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us.

Intuition ... appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.