Andreas Vesalius

I have found more errors in the works of the ancients than hairs on my head, and I am not bald.

Some physicians are so afraid of getting their hands dirty that they would rather believe a lie than see the truth for themselves.

The human body is a marvel, and it is a shame that so many have chosen to study it through the lens of tradition rather than with their own eyes.

To understand the machine, one must take it apart. To understand the body, one must dissect it.

I am not afraid to admit my own errors, for it is only through acknowledging them that we can progress.

The greatest teacher is experience, and in anatomy, that means the cadaver.

Those who cling to old doctrines without question are like men who refuse to open their eyes in broad daylight.

It is a sad state of affairs when a barber-surgeon knows more about the human body than a learned physician.

I have often wondered if some of the ancient anatomists ever actually saw a human body, or if they simply drew from their imaginations.

The truth, like a good wine, improves with age, but only if it is allowed to breathe.

My critics, I suspect, have more experience with books than with bodies.

To call oneself an anatomist without having dissected is like calling oneself a painter without ever having touched a brush.

The human body is a book, and dissection is the only way to read it properly.

I prefer the silent testimony of the cadaver to the eloquent but mistaken words of the ancients.

If you wish to know the truth, do not ask a scholar, ask a butcher.

The more I dissect, the more I realize how little we truly know.

It is easier to believe a lie that has been repeated a thousand times than to discover a new truth.

My greatest teachers have been the dead, for they hold no prejudices.

To ignore the evidence of one's own eyes is a greater sin than to make an error.

I have no doubt that future generations will laugh at our current understanding, just as we laugh at the ancients.