Robert Koch

The art of medicine is to amuse the patient while nature cures the disease. My art is to find what nature is curing.

I prefer the company of my cultures to the company of most men. At least the cultures are predictable.

It is a rare day when a new disease does not present itself. The world is never short of challenges for a bacteriologist.

The most profound truths are often found in the most minute details.

Some call it obsession; I call it dedication to the unseen.

The human body is a battleground, and I am merely observing the combatants.

If you wish to understand life, study death. If you wish to understand health, study disease.

My greatest fear is not failure, but the failure to ask the right questions.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In bacteriology, a good stain is worth a thousand theories.

The more complex the problem, the simpler the solution often appears, once discovered.

I have no time for speculation; only for observation and experimentation.

The world is a vast petri dish, and we are all merely cultures within it.

It is a constant struggle to convince the world that what they cannot see can indeed kill them.

The greatest discoveries are often made by those who are willing to look where no one else has bothered.

My work is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who fear the invisible.

The only thing more persistent than a disease is the human desire to ignore its cause.

I am merely a translator, interpreting the language of the microscopic world for the macroscopic one.

To conquer a foe, one must first understand its nature. And these foes are quite small, but remarkably complex.

They say I have a one-track mind. Indeed, it is the track that leads to the source of infection.

The physician is the natural attorney of the sick and the poor.